Southern Rail strike descends into chaos with passengers ‘punching’ each other

Southern Rail have been hugely condemned by passengers (Picture: Southern)

Southern Rail services descended into chaos on the first day of a planned strike - with reports claiming that some passengers became so stressed that they started punching each other.

Chaos reigned supreme on the first day of a planned strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union’s planned three day walkout over disputes with Southern Rail.

This, alone, meant that services were reduced by a third.

But delays were worsened even MORE by engineering work between Brighton and Gatwick Airport, causing a multitude of delays and even cancellations.

Posting on Twitter, passengers described the chaotic scenes - and even reported instances of physical violence.

‘This doesn’t even begin to do justice to the bedlam of East Croydon station this morning. Swearing and punches being thrown. Delightful’, commuter Ellie Odurny wrote.

Describing the chaotic scenes, Ellie told Yahoo: ‘I was travelling from East Croydon yesterday morning. There were crowds on the station as the gates had been shut to prevent overcrowding.

‘When they opened the gates, there was one man in front of me who elbowed another guy in the head in an attempt to get past. A lot of other people were shoving and pushing each other.’

Quite a few passengers reported similar scenes - using the pithy hashtag #SouthernFail.

Angie Doll, Southern’s Passenger Service Director, has since apologised for the delays - but appeared to direct a degree of blame at the RMT union.

‘This added to the frustration passengers are experiencing today because of the RMT’s strike action which is totally unnecessary now the union has told its members to accept the changes we have planned to improve customer service’, she said.