Government urged to strip Govia Thameslink Railway of its franchise

The government must “stop pussyfooting around” and strip Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) of its franchise, the shadow transport secretary has demanded as MPs described the ongoing disruption to rail services in their constituencies.

Andy McDonald described the rail operator as a “disgraceful company” as he asked what it had to do to lose its contract.

“Enough is enough – the government must stop pussyfooting around and strip Govia of their contract without delay,” he said, asking an urgent question on the franchise in the House of Commons.

“The government and rail industry have failed passengers both on GTR and across the north of England.”

He added there was no need to wait for the findings of a review into the timetabling chaos, saying: “It won’t tell us what we don’t know today.”

On the first working day of the new timetable there were 423 cancellations.

The transport minister, Jo Johnson, said the Department for Transport had started a hard review of the franchise to “establish whether GTR have met and continue to meet their contractual obligations in the planning and delivery of the May timetable”.

He said: “As part of this process, we are looking at whether GTR have breached their contracts and we won’t hesitate to take tough action against them if they are found to have been at fault.”

McDonald asked the minister to give the house “advance notice of any cuts to transport investment that he plans to sneak out on the sly before or during the summer recess”.

He also took aim at the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, who was absent from the chamber, saying it was a “shame he hasn’t turned up yet again”. Johnson said Grayling would have responded to the statement had he not been at the Farnborough Airshow.

Other MPs told of the misery and frustration that the ongoing disruption had caused in their constituencies.

Lilian Greenwood, the Labour MP for Nottingham South and chair of the transport committee, said: “GTR’s third attempt to implement a more robust and reliable timetable has understandably been met with incredulity by those passengers who are still experiencing more cancelled services, more confusion and dangerously overcrowded stations and platforms.”

Tim Loughton, the Tory MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said a school in his area had to close an hour early so that children could get the train home.

“As a direct consequence of the third emergency timetable coming in on Sunday, schools in east Worthing have had to bring forward the closing of their school day by an hour because there are no longer any trains for their pupils,” he said.

In reference to the fact that services have continued to be cancelled, he lambasted the government’s claim that performance was improving: “The punctuality rate will indeed improve because there are 100% of those trains no longer running.”

It was announced in June there would be compensation for commuters and an inquiry into what went wrong with a new timetable launched in May.

However, MPs criticised the compensation scheme since it would only apply for commuters who had purchased monthly season tickets.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said workers and passengers needed information from Grayling amid ongoing cancellations and delays to GTR services.

“Passengers and staff alike will be rightly angry if the government make yet another effort to boot the Govia Thameslink scandal into the long grass as they head off for the sunbeds,” the RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said.