London commuters STILL face delays and cancellations even after Southern Railway cut 350 services a day
Under-fire company promised slashing the timetable would bring 'a better, more consistent service'
COMMUTERS faced another miserable day of delays on the Southern Railway network this morning on the first day of the under-fire train company's new reduced timetable.
Furious passengers vented their frustration on the firm's Twitter feed as services failed to arrive on time and others were cancelled - even after bosses controversially axed 341 services a day to ease pressure.
Southern Railway said the interim move was aimed at making services more "resilient".
A spokesman said: "Ninety-five per cent of trains are running on time or within five minutes against a revised timetable and there has been no reporting of overcrowding issues."
However commuters' photos showed departure boards with every single train running late, including those bound for London.
One Southern service was cancelled between Horsham and London Victoria, while sister company Thameslink's service to Bedford was also cancelled.
And passengers reported "dangerous overcrowding" on the thinned-out service.
Twitter user Ells Bells said: "@SouthernRailUK Did you realise if you put the same amount of people that fill 5 trains into 2 trains the result would be dangerous?"
Russ Chandler tweeted: "Usual Monday morning carnage of delays & cancellations even now you run less trains! Useless beyond belief."
James Finlason said he had to help a woman who fainted due to overcrowding on last night's 11.17pm from Victoria to Worthing, West Sussex, just hours before the timetable was enforced.
He tweeted at Southern Rail: "Passenger safety jeopardised, what's your response. Passenger fainted in my arms because of overcrowding.
"I commute every day, I'm sickened by your service but put up with it but tonight it became criminal."
The firm has previously apologised to passengers for weeks of disruption and pressed ahead with the reduced timetable despite warnings it could have a "devastating" impact.
Passengers have complained about not getting home from work to see their children because services have been so unreliable and some have lost their jobs.
One long-suffering commuter told how she was forced to quit her job after Southern Rail's delays caused her to be late almost every day for eight months.
Natalie Georgoulopoulos, 26, works in Children's Services for Surrey Council and travels from Norbury, south London, to Working, Surrey.
She said: "For the last eight months that I've been using the route I would say there have been delays about 80 per cent of the time.
"If the trains were running on time then it was fine but as soon as there were delays it would get blocked up.
"I handed in my notice last week. The last three weeks have been hell.
"A few weeks back I left home at 7.30 and didn't get into work until 11am. Two hours after I was supposed to arrive. It was hell.
"The trains were all messed up the following Monday and I had just reached boiling point."
At Seaford station in East Sussex, where buses are replacing most trains to Lewes, Liz Bur said: "It's just appalling, it's crazy. You turn up for a train and it is not there. Therefore journeys take much longer and it's an inconvenience all round.
"I've not been able to get back in time to put the children to bed. It definitely affects your private life. They should employ more staff and not rely on overtime."
Frances Olivine, 21, from Seaford, said: "I know the train service will do this to me every now and again but this is the most dramatic I have seen it in a long time.
"It shouldn't be this difficult to make sure people get to where they have to go. I had to spend a £30 taxi fare to get to work for a job where I earned £7.20 recently - that pained me, but I had no other option.
"We are in a situation where we are stuck waiting for someone to do something. Everyone is angry and frustrated because no-one is getting any answers.
"This new timetable means I'm going to be in work an hour early which isn't what I want to be doing. I'm just going to have to deal with it."
Southern said the temporary timetable has 85 per cent of the normal number of trains.
A spokesman said: "We know the service level in the last couple of months has not been good enough and we apologise unreservedly.
"This new timetable allows us to target our resources where they are needed most and at the same time give passengers a more predictable service which they can plan their lives around.
"It is a temporary measure while we work with the RMT to end the dispute and bring their members back to work and, while it should be judged over a few days, the first few hours of operation are encouraging."
Southern, owned by Govia Thameslink Railway, blames high levels of staff sickness as well as industrial action by the RMT union in a dispute over the role of conductors.
Southern's passenger services director Alex Foulds said when the changes were announced last week that the cuts would mean "a better, more consistent service".
Rail minister Claire Perry said today "only 15 per cent" of the original timetable's services had been cancelled and 65 per cent of the failures were down to problems with the track.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "customers don't actually care whose fault it is" but there were "serious questions" about the way the company was running the service.
The minister said: "It's been quite clear to me that companies that cannot deliver a good service, particularly over the things they can control, should not be bidding for new franchises."
Ms Perry claimed there was a "standoff" between the company and the unions but said she was guaranteeing there would still be an on-board staff member on trains.
RELATED STORIES
She said: "By April of this year, things were okay. In April we had a reliability rate of about 84 per cent. Not good enough, I would be the first to say that.
"But since that we have seen both planned and unplanned industrial action that has meant there is no certainty about the services and it's just been absolutely dreadful."
Commuters who have faced several weeks of chaos because of delays and cancellations will hold a demonstration at London's Victoria station later today.
Alex Prosser-Snelling, one of the organisers, said: "We aren't people who protest normally, but everyone's fed up with the service.
"Southern mismanagement is needlessly wrecking passengers' evenings, interfering with childcare, and stressing out the workforce. Southern needs to get a grip - and if they can't or won't, the Government shouldn't let them run a railway."
The RMT has offered to suspend industrial action for three months if the company pulls back from implementing the changes to the role of conductors from August 21.
The rail industry and the Government have offered support to Southern over its plans to switch responsibility for closing train doors from conductors to drivers.
An RMT spokesman said: "Only in the insane parallel universe inhabited by Southern Rail could you cancel hundreds of trains a day and then try and dress it up as running an improved service.
"This mob are now way beyond a joke for both passengers and staff alike and their continued efforts to try and blame this chaos on their frontline workforce are sickening and cowardly.
"This is a basket case franchise in meltdown, robbing the taxpayer of millions of pounds, and they are wholly incapable of delivering any kind of rail service. They should be thrown out and the publicly owned Directly Operated Railways drafted in to sort this mess out."
Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: "Southern passengers are understandably frustrated to hear that the solution to an unreliable service is to cut that service. While this drastic step could well bring the reliability that people need, there will be those who lose out as a result.
"We want to see discounted tickets and increased compensation for passengers facing daily inconvenience - offered proactively, without making passengers jump through hoops and, of course, talks must continue between the industry and the union.";
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368