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New evidence reveals that Tory Task force Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT) remained the main advisor to the Department for Transport on rail reform until March this year, giving extensive input into designing the structure of the new public body.

Official advice reports on ‘GBR Organisational Design’ were submitted to ministers as recently as November and December 2024, influencing the government’s decision to abandon GBR’s longstanding socioeconomic, accessibility and environment duties, and shift to a new ‘streamlined model’.[1]

There is also concerning evidence of corporate capture of parts of GBRTT, with ‘Rail Partners’ (transport owning groups First, Arriva, Transport UK and the Rail Delivery Group) operating deep inside the task force and even co-authoring official policy advice to ministers until at least late 2023. Their involvement continued until this year, including a significant role developing ‘passenger revenue growth strategies’. Though Rail Partners itself was wound down last month, the Rail Delivery Group, run by the very same owning groups, now continues this work.[2]

This report is the first in a series explaining the crisis behind GBR’s organisational design – and the dangers presented by the aggressive lobbying of private companies. The standoff between corporate and public interests is now at peak threat level, and the only way to solve it is the complete repeal of competition law from rail legislation.

GBR Organisational Design – what is the Department for Transport hiding?

GBR Organisational Design means deciding the financial framework for combining the Profit and Loss accounts of the entire railway – over £12 billion per year of taxpayers money. The upcoming Railways Bill will establish this framework and a consultation has just taken place on the legislation. However, the government’s new proposal for GBR was revealed in February to have dropped its longstanding socioeconomic duties for the sake of a new ‘streamlined model’. No cost impact assessment was published with the consultation, and no explanation given for the radical shift in direction.[3]

So, why is GBR’s Organisational Design so controversial that it needs to be hidden from the public? The answer is the railway’s biggest taboo – the restrictions of competition law on the interests of passengers and taxpayers.

Competition Vs Public Interest: Impact on passengers

Competition law conflicts have been the main impediment to rail integration since the 2021 White Paper of the previous government. This continues to be the case because the DfT is trying to reconcile two completely opposing objectives: integrating the railway; and stimulating competition for private companies.

The reason that rail integration and public interest aspects of GBR have repeatedly been found to be impossible is because under competition requirements, GBR is considered a ‘market participant’. This puts it under a complex web of legal duties not to provide additional economic benefits to the public beyond those that can be accessed by private companies.[4] This fundamental constraint still applies, despite the move towards public ownership and the change of government.

The new proposal of a ‘streamlined GBR’ should be seen as a competition-friendly model that leaves room for private companies to fight out the details later. The following ticket retail and cross-sector passenger services are currently under threat:

1. Integrated GBR ticket retail platform

Integrated ticket retail is impossible while the government keeps up its objective of ‘stimulating competition in the third-party retail market.’ The previous government dropped this idea entirely because it would have meant the financial separation of its rail and ticket retail arms.

Claims by the government that it will create a ‘government-backed’ app should be treated with scepticism. In fact, the influence of competition law means GBR will have to be designed according to at least some level of internal division between its railway and ticket retail arms. Under the restrictions imposed by the Competition Act 1998, this would mean in the best-case scenario a divided structure unable to integrate fare and ticketing policies or cross-subsidise its operations. In the worst-case scenario, the combination of industry lobbying and competition law restrictions could even open the door to a public-private partnership as GBR’s ticket retail arm.

The loss of integrated ticket retail is now a clear and present danger, with the ‘Independent Rail Retailers’, an entity set up to lobby on GBR third party retail reform, demanding the full separation of GBR’s retail activities, additional controls on cross-subsidy and a stronger role for the Competition and Markets Authority.[5] It is now being widely reported that both the IRR and its biggest member, Trainline, are ramping up their lobbying efforts.

2. Rail Delivery Group dominating ticket retail and rail accessibility

The removal of the Rail Delivery Group was the first priority of the 2021 White Paper on GBR, due to it being named as a major cause of market failure and perverse incentives. In fact, the absorption of the RDG’s cross-sector passenger functions was so much a priority for the previous government that it was the GBRRT’s entire first year workstream. This was suddenly abandoned in June 2022, with no explanation ever given to the public.[6] Meanwhile the Rail Delivery Group has become more powerful than ever and remains in place of the entire country’s ticket retail system and many other ‘cross-sector passenger functions’, including multi-million pound network-wide projects such as ticketless travel and assistance infrastructure for disabled travellers.[7]

Competition-based conflicts are the cause of the RDG remaining lodged in place and make its removal extremely difficult for the government. For example, under the original plan, collaboration between train operators was supposed to be enabled by carefully legislated ‘exemptions’ to competition law. However, the previous government found even the most limited exemptions impossible due the effect of the Competition Act 1998, which tightly controls any collaboration within competitive markets.[8] In the current context, these restrictions impede even the publicly owned operators collaborating even with each other, lest they gain an advantage over private companies.

Furthermore, the responsibility of licensing the third-party ticket retail market cannot lie with either GBR or a hypothetical separated GBR retail arm, since under competition law, this would be seen as risking prejudice towards the interests of passengers and taxpayers, thus disadvantaging third party retailers.[9] Currently, the RDG remains in its licensing role to third parties, meaning it has now become entrenched as both gatekeeper and dominator of the third-party retail market.

3. No public consultation on fare policies or ticket retail

Due to the commercial confidentiality demanded by transport owning groups and the RDG, there has been no consultation on fares or ticket retail policy since 2019, which never reported back to the public. In fact, all cross sector passenger functions have been exempted from consultation throughout many years of rail reform for this reason.[10] Our new evidence proves that the development of fare and ticket growth strategies and policy has been, and continues to be, entirely within the domain of the owning groups and RDG.

With the highest rail fares in Europe, fare and ticketing policies should be considered a priority matter by the DfT. Instead, this issue has been buried for years, and if a competition-based retail model is established, we can expect there to be significant constraints on synchronising fares and ticketing with public policy. Integration will be seen, inherently, as a ‘conflict of interest’ that could discriminate against private companies and therefore creates a ‘chilling effect’ on the new laws and regulation because GBR will have to be carefully designed to avoid legal challenge.

Part Two: Impact on taxpayers

The next part of this series will focus on the impact of competition law and industry lobbying on taxpayers, and will dispatch further evidence warning of the potential outcomes if GBR is allowed to be captured by corporations.

The restrictions of competition law are the biggest obstacle to rail integration and the public/socioeconomic interest. The only solution is the full repeal of all competition clauses from rail legislation, and the removal of the role of the Competition and Markets Authority and competition duties of the Office of Rail and Road.

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References

[1] The Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy has been receiving the same high-level policy advice he had previously signed off on as Chair of Network Rail, while ‘Shadow GBR’, established by the current government in October, has remained barely operational. See Transport Committee, Oral evidence: Shadow Great British Railways, HC 554 and The Times, ‘No minutes from ‘robust’ meetings to create Great British Railways’ (26 Jan 2025).

[2] In addition to its control of the UK’s entire ticket retail system, ‘National Rail’, the Rail Delivery Group is developing and enacting Railway Policy and Strategy, including decarbonisation, stations, network planning, accessibility technologies and workforce reform. (Confirmed via FOI request).

[3] The reports on GBR organisational design were withheld from release by ministerial veto. Other FOI requests show that the DfT is holding back economic and cost modelling it has conducted on the plans, and the Sunday Telegraph recently reported that the DfT has received a report finding that private ‘open access’ operators on the network could cost the taxpayer billions over the next decade.

[4] See Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) response to GBR consultation (April 2025); CMA response to GBR consultation (Aug 2022); ORR response to GBR consultation (July 2022).

[5] Railway Gazette, ‘Rail ticket retailers call for a level playing field’ (8 May 2025).

[6] Confirmed by FOI requests. See also ORR Meeting Minutes, (June 2022).

[7] Despite delivering ‘public functions’ and developing and enacting public policy, RDG is unregulated by the ORR, has no requirement to consult passengers on retail and assistance reform, and is not subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty.

[8] DfT, Plan for Rail consultation outcome (Feb 2024), page 57.

[9] DfT, A railway fit for the future, GBR consultation (Feb 2025), pages 37-38.

[10] ABC, The Great British Cover-Up (July 2022); ABC, The Great British Rip-Off: Why the Williams-Shapps Plan will fail to deliver (Aug 2022).

New documents reveal years of ‘stealth destaffing’ at Southeastern, as its network is exposed to be severely understaffed, with ticket offices meeting their scheduled hours at an average of just 74% for the last two years. It has now begun a secretive new ‘Ticket Office Project’, involving the removal of afternoon shifts, and piloting of new job roles at 14 Kent stations.

Our freedom of information requests to Southeastern show that 14 stations are due to have their ticket office opening hours cut by half: a daily loss of 6-7 hours staffing hours, for 5-7 days per week.

The stations due to lose their afternoon shifts are: Beckenham Jn*, Bexleyheath*, Hayes (Kent), Mottingham*, New Cross*, New Eltham*, Petts Wood*, Welling* (Metro area stations); and Battle, Bearsted, Deal, Otford*, Wadhurst, West Malling (located across Kent). *The nine starred stations are served by driver-only trains.

When the afternoon shifts are removed, passengers will be unable to access retail advice, or the full range of affordable tickets. If staff are completely removed from the stations, toilets and waiting rooms will be made unavailable, and where stations are served by driver-only trains, boarding and alighting assistance can’t be provided – preventing disabled people’s right to ‘turn up and go’.

David Wornham, Southeastern’s Passenger Services Director said:

“Recently, changes were made at Otford and Deal, which both typically see no more than 10 ticket sales per hour each shift. We plan to adjust hours at another 12 ticket offices in 2025. Stations will remain staffed, with accessibility and safeguarding assistance provided by platform staff.”

Southeastern is making the changes without consultation

Despite the slashing of around 50% of ticket office staffing hours at the 14 stations, the changes did not go through any sort of public consultation and have been kept secret until now. This is because they were originally approved by the DfT in January 2022, when Southeastern used the ‘Minor Change Process’ of Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement agreement to notify of the changes. It is only now that Southeastern has begun the process of permanently removing the shifts.

Of the list of 14 stations, just Deal and Otford have lost their afternoon ticket office shifts so far; and Southeastern plans to cut afternoon shifts at the remaining 12 early next year. This is all being done against a background of long-term ticket office under-staffing across the whole Southeastern network, averaging just 74.31% for the last 26 months.

Southeastern said: “Following a national consultation confirming that no ticket offices will close we are recruiting and training around 100 additional ticket office staff this year. To date we have recruited 97 of these and this will lead to significantly increased ticket office hours.”

A long-term strategy of stealth destaffing

The new documents suggest that Southeastern had been conducting a long-term strategy to shed ticket office staff. In an Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) from October 2024, Southeastern states:

‘In 2022 [redacted] went through the ticketing settlement agreement minor change process to remove the requirement for an afternoon shift at these locations. At the same time staffing was reduced through a voluntary severance scheme to leaving [sic] enough staff remaining only for a morning shift. Customer-facing information was not changed at this time. The objective is to confirm the future staffing makeup of [redacted] align the customer facing information with the ticket office staffing times.’ (EqIA, page 8)

Though heavily redacted, the document shows that Southeastern’s current Ticket Office Project is part of a “change programme”, which appears to relate to a new staffing strategy “…which will focus on less shift work and more fixed shifts”.  “The majority of positions that would be affected by this change are currently vacant” and there is “increased working outside” as part of a “change [that] will help our people start to think differently about their roles and prioritise the customer service they are brilliant at giving rather than primarily being an underused sales point.”

No Equality Impact Assessments for the Schedule 17 changes

We have confirmed that no EqiAs were completed for these changes when they were approved by the Department for Transport in 2022. However, Southeastern provided us with a draft EqIA (Oct 2024) for the removal of the afternoon shift that recently took place at Deal and Otford stations. The heavily redacted document shows little evidence that the impact on passengers, especially disabled people, has been considered.

According to Southeastern: “we currently only have the EqIA for Otford and Deal approved. EqIAs for the other locations will be approved before formal changes are made…These changes, which are supported by an Equalities Impact Assessment, were approved under the previous government. Future changes will need to be approved by the current government.”

We asked the Department for Transport 1) whether they had approved Southeastern’s current ‘Ticket Office Project’; 2) whether other operators were conducting similar stealth destaffing programmes; 3) and whether they intended to take action on Southeastern’s 74% average compliance with ticket office staffing obligations.

The DfT responded: “We recognise the vital role ticket offices play in the journeys of people with disabilities, and we have no plans to close them. These ticket office changes were agreed under the previous Government. The Department is now examining Southeastern’s plans to ensure passengers remain supported.”

Future dangers of ticket office closures and stealth destaffing

Southeastern’s actions prove the ongoing dangers of Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement agreement (TSA) – re the ways it can enable train operators to destaff their networks by stealth.  In this example, Southeastern was able to play the system to cut around 6-7 hours per day of ticket office staffing without consultation by calling it a ‘minor change.’

Schedule 17 is an out-of-date and inadequate process, allowing train operators to close ticket offices based on sales figures alone, without taking account of other passenger needs, especially accessibility. The TSA is technically an agreement between operators and the unregulated Rail Delivery Group, and the fact that Southeastern’s compliance figures have been running at 74% for so long suggests it is not being enforced. The Schedule 17 process has clearly been facilitating a vicious cycle of managed decline, where operators can secretly make drastic changes to opening hours, based on sales figures from ticket offices that are not complying with their opening hours in the first place. 

Most concerning of all is that the TSA is the only way that any staff hours are regulated – ie, in this case we only have Southeastern’s figures for ticket office staffing, with no way of obtaining the figures for station staff, etc; which are essential to assessing the true scale of the cuts.

These warnings about Schedule 17 and stealth destaffing were also the subject of our 2023 campaign letter against ticket office closures, which spells out the dangers in more detail.

The government must take responsibility

The Department for Transport must act immediately to stop the secret programme of ticket office cuts at Southeastern. It must then take responsibility for staffing strategy across the entire railway, beginning with the immediate enforcement of Schedule 17 hours, and ensuring compliance figures are published regularly by all operators.

We also need to see new, nationwide standards for staffing, ensuring there is always a member of staff available to provide safety, security, information, retail services and assistance – also an absolute necessity for disabled people’s right to ‘turn up and go’. Regulatory measures should be updated to include transparent reporting of staff figures of all types, with a requirement to publicly consult on all changes to retail, staffing and accessibility.

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For the full set of documents from our Southeastern investigation, download zip folder here.

For more information: contact@abcommuters.com

*Note: this blog was edited shortly after publication to include the Department for Transport’s comment.

We had some very big news today – a decision has been announced on some of Southern Rail’s contractual breaches (force majeure); bringing the Department for Transport’s 14 months of deliberation finally to an end. At the same time, ABC is facing its biggest threat yet…

The DfT is now coming at us for costs – to the tune of £17,278. If we cannot pay by 28th July, our co-directors will have to fold ABC Ltd. immediately; and furthermore will not be able to take on further judicial review actions whether as a group or as individuals.

Please help us and donate whatever you can afford – so that ABC can go on to fight another day!

Our lawyers are still in discussion with the DfT and are determining whether the Judge’s order was fully satisfied. But, whatever happens, we are sure that the DfT will be willing to satisfy the order enough to prevent our JR going forward. They simply will not risk the level of exposure that a judicial review would bring.

The outcome of today’s news is that we’ve proven that a group of volunteer passengers can indeed have an effect when all other means of representation fail us. With the force majeure decision, we have achieved more than any MP or even the Transport Select Committee has so far.

But, there is so much more to do and we don’t want to give up! We are busy innovating a whole new model of crowd-sourced legal action and investigative journalism, and we are only just getting started. With our recent leaks on disability access, we feel that a further Equality Act challenge (this time on the issue of DOO) would be an almost certain win. Anyone who has been following our campaign will know how regular these assistance failures are, and how distressing for passengers.

Please help us now or we will have to draw the campaign to a conclusion.

We currently have funds of around £13,500 – with only 5 days to go.

If we reach £15,000 – we will be able to pay our lawyers, but ABC will be over.

If we reach £27,000 – we will be able to pay our lawyers, the DfT’s costs, and survive.

If we reach over £27,000 – ever penny will go towards further legal advice so that we can keep making the biggest impact possible in demanding justice and accountability on Southern Rail.

Much of the newspaper reporting (and DfT press release) on our case has been a little confused; so we now publish the first clear and accurate analysis of the legal situation. Please accept our apologies for not publishing sooner – ABC is volunteer-run by passengers alongside our day jobs, campaigning and daily commuting nightmare; and with the court case and a visit to Parliament we have been extremely busy!

So, what exactly happened on Thursday?

The most important thing to know is that the premise of our entire judicial review application was our first ground: “Delay“. This refers to our argument that the 14 months the DfT has spent deliberating on Southern Rail’s contractual breaches is an “unreasonable delay” – an argument, in other words, for the right of commuters to demand scrutiny of an essential public service in a timely manner.

On Thursday 29th June, the Judge agreed with this principle and gave the Transport Minister Chris Grayling two weeks to produce a final decision on Southern Rail’s defense for its breaches (force majeure). He must now inform GTR of his final decision by 13th July, or permission for our judicial review will automatically be granted.

Though the DfT’s line in the press is that our case was “thrown out of court”, it is clear that this was a significant legal victory, or it would not now form an urgent political pressure on the government; as demonstrated at the Southern Rail Parliamentary debate yesterday.

We will now wait until the 13^th July to see if Chris Grayling complies with the Judge’s order – if he does not, our judicial review will go forward.

Why was our case a significant legal victory?

In addition to forcing the Transport Minister to make a final decision on force majeure by 13^th July, our case represents a precedent-setting ruling for public interest in contracts between government departments and private companies. There are two outcomes here that should be of great interest to campaigners; as well as equality and human rights lawyers:

1. It is at least arguable that there is a public law duty owed to the public by the Secretary of State that franchise agreements are enforced in a reasonable manner (in addition to any contractual or statutory enforcement obligations). Further, Mr Justice Ouseley commented that it was ‘perfectly obvious’ that the provision of public transport through an effective franchise system was undertaken for the purpose of providing a public service.
2. It is at least arguable that where a public body issues a policy document (the enforcement policy) it must be implied that decisions taken under that policy must be made in a reasonable time and cannot be left until “kingdom come”. Mr Justice Ouseley said “there is an implied obligation to reach decisions in a reasonable time in all the circumstances of the case.”

The Highlights:

The Judge had little patience for the DfT’s argument that this area of law was “not the business of the public” and did not entertain his argument that decisions regarding the relationship between the DfT and GTR “do not have any direct effect on anyone else.”

Best of all, the judge dismissed out of hand the DfT’s claim that the 1,500 commuters who have funded our court case “do not have standing” or “lack interest” in the matter. This in itself is incredibly significant, as the DfT had shamelessly implied in written communication that our non-profit organisation (established at the peak of the Southern Rail crisis last year) was not a ‘respectable’ enough organisation.

Thus, ABC’s judicial review case represents a new legal crowdfunding model that is capable of forcing the government to be accountable to the public when all other democratic mechanisms fail. The Judge did not hesitate to accept our “standing”, and this suggests that campaigns like ours can be even more successful in pressuring government policy in future.

Our Equality Act argument will not go forward, due to a technicality

On this topic, there is one very important clarification to make. The Equality Act challenge involved with this judicial review had nothing whatsoever to do with our ongoing campaigning efforts on driver only operation (DOO); regarding the equality of access breaches occurring at rural and unstaffed stations. Any report of this in the rail media is an error and we will be asking for corrections.

The Equality part of our case was in fact formed of three smaller grounds arising from the first on “Delay” – namely that the DfT’s failure to act on GTR’s breaches of benchmarks throughout 2016 resulted in breaches of the Equality Act on Southern Rail. That is to say, that the extreme overcrowding resulting from these contractual breaches had a discriminatory effect on disabled people attempting to use the railway at that time. Of these three grounds, only one was discussed in court and it was rejected on a technicality.

Is it true that an Equality Act challenge on DOO is still “inevitable”?

It is absolutely still the case that our legal advice from Devonshires (and that of several other pro bono lawyers) is that an Equality Act challenge on DOO is inevitable; and extremely likely to be successful.

Anyone in doubt of this opinion might like to read the original leaked version of the 2-year buried Rail Delivery Group report on disabled access, released exclusively on this blog last week. Ironically, this vital report on disabled access gives us yet another piece of encouraging legal advice on the matter: namely, that an Equality Act challenge on DOO is “highly likely” and (upon success) “likely” to force a change to government policy.

The buried document has since been published by the Rail Delivery Group, yet this controversial report – arguing that Conductors are the best source of assistance for disabled people – has received very little press coverage. Nor have we heard any explanation from the Rail Delivery Group as to why it was suppressed for so long, and why nobody even knew of its existence. The reason for its suppression is almost certainly the strength of its arguments for the full staffing of trains and stations; and its obvious opposition to “clear trends” of destaffing arising from the McNulty report.

Major disability charities have already responded with shock at the suppression of this document, and we have made clear to our disabled members that ABC will support them as much as we can on any legal action they plan to take forward. On this issue, we repeat (for what seems like the hundredth time) that these failures of access occur regularly on Southern Rail, due to there being no second staff member on trains for which disabled people have pre-booked assistance.

We are still urgently crowdfunding to pay our brilliant lawyers, and urgently need to get to £15,000 by 18th July. Please donate whatever you can to help us!

We wanted to thank you for all your support on social media. We are now well on the way to raising £15,000 and urgently need to be funded before Thursday – so if you can convince even one more person to donate this weekend, it will have a massive effect on our chances of success! This is a real David vs Goliath battle, as you all know.

This is the best link for sharing and it would have an incredible effect if every one of our backers could share it on social media and explain why they support our case.

We are now entering our final weekend of normal life before the commencement of the next Aslef overtime ban. Claims about just how severely Southern Rail is understaffed vary between Southern Rail’s claim of 10% and Aslef’s of 25% – either way, we know from months of suffering how bad an impact this will have. We ask you to join us in calling for proper scrutiny by the media and MPs on the real issues underlying this never-ending crisis of industrial relations.

There has been a lot going on in Southern Rail news this week and we’ve been doing our best to promote the call for proper public scrutiny of this ongoing crisis.

• A lively discussion between ABC’s Emily Yates and LBC’s Nick Ferrari this morning.
• ABC co-director Brad Rees talking about our court case in depth in this TV interview.
• **On Tuesday, we published an expose of alleged health and safety issues at London Victoria, later acknowledged in the Gibb report, where he stated “At…Victoria, pedestrian flows, gateline + concourse capacity are all significantly influenced by commercial strategy….”

We’re doing as much as we can to bring this situation to a close once and for all and badly need your help. Every Facebook share, tweet and – most of all – real life conversation(!) helps us fight back against a very ill-informed media and create a real chance for scrutiny of the government’s agenda.

Please help us to raise £15,000 by Thursday – and let’s do our best to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2016!

Please donate to our crowdfunder and spread the message to your friends and family!

Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

Today, we exclusively reveal photographic proof of important health and safety related work at Victoria station that has been postponed by the Department for Transport/Network Rail. We expect the Gibb report to highlight this concern, and wish to alert press and MPs to the fact that sources close to Gibb have now confirmed the report was ready for release on April 6th of this year.

The following images come in two pairs. In each pair, the first is a photograph of the current layout at Victoria, and the second a computer simulation from Network Rail of work that should have already been carried out to ease the overcrowding:

Senior Network Rail managers highlighted to Chris Gibb on a visit to Victoria station in late 2016 that there were problems with severe congestion for Brighton mainline passengers. The following comment, and everything else in quotes, comes directly from a Network Rail manager:

“There aren’t enough ticket gates for passengers using platforms 15-19. A rebuild of the gate-line was scheduled to have been completed as part of the congestion relief project in CP5 [Network Rail Control Period 5] but was postponed to CP6 [2019-24] to save costs. We made Gibb well aware of how ridiculous the decision was and how long passengers are having to wait to leave the station. We’re hoping he’ll recommend the work is carried out immediately – it’s an accident waiting to happen. This is work that was first planned 20 years ago”

The Network Rail managers informed Gibb that at peak times, passengers were observed queuing up to 5 minutes to pass through the gates at platforms 15-19.

Gibb also inspected the dedicated Gatwick Express platforms and asked why 12-car trains from Brighton were now routinely using platforms with ticket barriers designed to cope with far fewer passengers.

“It’s an unacceptable situation. It’s the first sight of London for tourists from the airport and we’ve had complaints from the Gatwick people who said the experience is costing them travellers”

Following a subsequent risk assessment, Network Rail identified safety concerns about passengers backing up in the confined space and the ability to evacuate in emergency. They have since ordered staff to leave a mesh gate between the concourse at 15-19 and the Gatwick Express platforms unlocked at peak times.

“If passengers knew it was unlocked they could skip the ticket barriers altogether, so we leave it shut but unlocked in case of emergency”

Victoria staff are now regularly asking control to hold trains outside the station to prevent simultaneous arrivals on platforms 15-19 and limit the flow of passengers, leading to knock-on delays on the mainline.

Platform 19, where the platform narrows to 6 feet in places because of roof supports, has been identified as a particular problem.

“We try to ensure the busiest services coming from the coast never arrive on platform 19. There’s a real risk that if anything happened to passengers, we could be prosecuted. When we’ve had a full train arriving – and then passengers for the subsequent departure heading in to the crowd – it’s been chaos. We’ve had panic attacks and even a kid slipping between the platform and a train.”

Comment from ABC:

Please note, our pursuit of the Gibb report is part of a long-standing lobbying campaign for our commuter group and not connected to our legal action against the Department for Transport.

“Commuters experienced another night of chaos on Southern Rail last night, with an unusually high number of issues contributing to the breakdown of service, including a trackside fire. This resulted in delays, cancellations, diversions, overcrowding and skipped stations for passengers, many of whom spent hours trying to get home.

Though the majority of passengers have so far blamed the company, we have to step up and share what information we have on the impact that issues at Victoria Station may have had on last night’s suffering. The above information from a Network Rail manager shows that important health and safety work to solve passenger congestion has been postponed at Victoria; and that this has not only had an impact on passenger safety, but also the flow of trains in and out of the station.

We are very concerned that if the current layout is struggling to handle the existing flow of passengers, it would probably be unable to cope with passengers turning back against the flow in the event of a fire or a security incident. This could be a recipe for disaster and we would like to see the risk assessment that has deemed the current layout safe.

The wider issue highlighted by this situation is the crisis of funding on our railways, which may have become too large an influence on planning and policy. The income from retail spaces is important in sustaining Network Rail, and may also form an important priority for the Department for Transport; in line with recommendations from the 2011 McNulty report.

We share this information today in the hope of enlightening passengers to the extremely complex causes of this ongoing rail crisis. It is not enough to simply blame Southern Rail. It is the Department for Transport that should take responsibility for this rail crisis and we are convinced that they are still avoiding this responsibility in many crucial areas.

We already know (from a response to a question in the House of Lords on April 7^th) that the Gibb report was handed to the Department for Transport on 30^th December last year. In addition to this, sources have today confirmed that this report was ready for release on April 6^th of this year. There is no excuse for the government to hold it back a day longer.

We are still at exactly the point we were a year ago with the Southern Rail crisis, and it is time for every responsible MP to stand up and demand the Gibb report’s immediate release – as a first step to removing this disastrous management contract from Govia Thameslink Railway.”

ABC is currently crowdfunding a court hearing for a judicial review of the Department for Transport. To donate, or get an update on their case; click here.

We have fought as hard as we can on this issue and have been met with a wall of silence from both Southern Rail and the government. So, we’ll be taking to the station platform once again to make our voices heard; and stand in solidarity with those who no longer have the freedom and flexibility that the rest of us take for granted.

SIGN UP HERE: Please join us for the London Bridge protest this Wednesday at 6pm.

Where and When?

17:00-17:30 – Short briefing at the Heeltap bar, Borough Highstreet, SE1 1NX, before walking together from 17:30 to London Bridge Station
18:00 – Meet on the upper concourse of London Bridge Station for the start of the protest. The protest will be taking place outside the building.

The Message

Transport for All hear daily of the unacceptable treatment faced by so many disabled and older travellers on our Railways. Whether it’s booked assistance failing to turn up, inaccessible platforms or a lack of accessible facilities on trains – what is clear is that our railways are failing disabled and older passengers.

Southern Rail’s withdrawal of ‘turn up and go’ assistance comes after the controversial introduction of driver only operation on their network. Without guards to provide assistance there is no guarantee that disabled and older people will be able to board or leave the train at unmanned stations.

The normalisation of 24-hour advance booking across the entire Southern Rail network is a giant backwards step for access rights and we refuse to accept that disabled people should be paying the price.

Speakers

Speakers will include the paralympian Anne Wafula Strike, Faryal Velmi and Alan Benson of TfA, and junior doctor Hannah Barham Brown.

**We’ll also be hosting an exclusive premiere of a new song from “Southern Fail: The Musical”, performed by Mark Brailsford of Brighton’s The Treason Show!**

Hannah Barham-Brown, junior doctor:

“As a doctor I have no idea when I will be leaving work or even going to work. It’s impossible for me to book 24 hours in advance for my travel, and I cannot be 2 hours late for work at a busy hospital while I wait to board a train. We’re not asking rail companies for perfection, we’re just asking for the very basic access that we need to go about our everyday lives.”

Faryal Velmi, Director of Transport for All:

“It’s shameful that Southern Rail are allowing disabled passengers to bear the brunt of their failures to deliver a reliable service. We have heard daily from disabled transport users stranded on freezing platforms, or forced to crawl onto trains when rail companies have failed to assist them. This unacceptable backwards step for access simply cannot be allowed to stand so we’re coming together to demand that Southern Rail reverse their decision”

Emily Yates, Co-founder of Association of British Commuters:

“We believe that Southern Rail is turning the clock back on access rights; just another part of the collateral damage that has been caused by the Department for Transport’s year-long war with the unions. We urgently need nationwide standards of accessibility in relation to DOO – not only for the sake of disabled travelers but also to prevent the dispute spreading nationwide. Ultimately, this is the responsibility of the Department for Transport, whose duty it is to hold train operating companies to account and ensure they comply with Equality law.”

About our alliance with Transport for All

Transport for All are the UK’s foremost defenders of access rights for the disabled and we were overjoyed to welcome them to our judicial review case last month. They have now written to the High Court asking to intervene and provide evidence of the extensive impact the Southern Rail crisis has had – and still has – on disabled passengers.

Transport for All will be represented by Chris Fry, the award-winning Equality and Human Rights lawyer who recently gained a significant Supreme Court victory on the right to bus access.

We are looking forward to working with them to set a new precedent for rail access rights – the aim of our case is to compel the Department for Transport to accept their responsibility for enforcing the Equality Act 2010, and ensure that all train operating companies comply in future.

Please join us at London Bridge this Wednesday! – SIGN UP HERE

The Alliance of Chambers of Commerce (ACES) recently launched a boycott and divestment campaign aimed at Southern Rail parent company Go Ahead, writing to major shareholders Ameriprise, Investec, JO Hambro, Standard Life and Premier to warn them of their association with this now toxic brand. Their campaign, led by Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce boss Christine Ewbank, takes to the street outside Eastbourne station on Monday morning. Please support them if you can!

We don’t normally expect our local Chambers of Commerce to take to the streets in protest – but, as every commuter on Southern Rail knows, these are hardly normal times. The ‘Great Train Robbers’ protest takes place this Monday 20th February at 6.45am outside the taxi rank of the train station (closest to the Enterprise Centre). If you live in Eastbourne, please stop by and support them; even if only for twenty minutes on the way to your morning train.

Unlike larger businesses, who may be able to command a private audience and quiet compensation arrangement with Southern Rail; thousands of small businesses have suffered just as much as commuters. ACES represents 4,000 employers and 15,000 employees across the region, and it is long past time their voices were heard.

The Chambers of Commerce Protest is non-politically affiliated and addresses all parties this Monday in an urgent call for reason and a fast resolution to the industrial dispute.

Statement from Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce:

We are calling for The Great Train Robbers:

• Chris Grayling MP (Secretary of State for Transport)
• Paul Maynard MP (Minister for Rail)
• Mick Cash (General Secretary, RMT)
• Mick Whelan (General Secretary, ASLEF)
• Charles Horton (Chief Executive Officer, GTR)
• David Brown (Chief Executive, Go-Ahead)

to work together NOW to bring a fast resolution to the Southern Rail dispute before more people lose their livelihoods.

Collectively, these agencies have robbed over £308,000,000 from the local economy, endangered jobs and our members businesses. We ask that you join us for the protest.

We do not take this action lightly.

As a Chamber we remain non-political.  But part of our responsibility is to stand up on behalf of our members when our business interests are threatened.  Already, we have seen lower footfall in our town centre and decreased attendance at our major tourism events and venues. We have heard first hand of the struggles our business community is having and the loss of jobs as a direct impact of the strikes and the poor performance of GTR.

We do not apportion blame to any one particular agency or individual – it is the collective failings of all parties in this joint enterprise. We cannot allow this dispute and poor service to continue indefinitely. It is well over a year since this disruption started – it must now end.

Join us – this Monday 20th February – 6.45am outside the taxi rank of the train station (closest to the Enterprise Centre).