Transport secretary Chris Grayling has announced a new ‘hit squad’ plus a further £10m of Government subsidy to Southern Rail to “get to grips” with problems on their network .
Passengers have experienced months of interrupted services and the chaos has continued even after the company cut 350 services and introduced a new, less frequent, timetable – down to just two trains an hour to London Bridge from North Dulwich.
On Thursday Mr Grayling announced that former Virgin Rail chief operating officer Chris Gibb is to head a new project board to ensure that franchise holder GTR restores train services.
Curiously the transport secretary’s statement makes no mention of involving the Mayor or TfL in the project team. A strange omission if the aim is to make London’s transport system work more cohesively for Londoners.
