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Southern Rail dispute nears its end as deal 'being finalised'

Long-running dispute: Southern Rail: PA Wire/PA Images
Long-running dispute: Southern Rail: PA Wire/PA Images

An end to the 18 month long Southern Rail dispute – the longest in railway history – appeared close today as union barons said they were “finalising” an agreement.

Aslef, the train drivers union, stated that further discussions had taken place with GTR – Southern’s parent company – and “significant progress has been made.

“We are now in the process of finalising a proposal for agreement.”

There are caveats to the peace deal; twice before the Aslef leadership has announced it had reached agreement and twice before the membership rejected it by ballot.

The RMT union remains in dispute with two more strikes remain scheduled to take place on Tuesday 3 October and Thursday 5 October – effectively causing more disruption throughout the entire week.

The dispute, which began in April of last year, is over the changing role of the guard and implementation of driver-only operated (DOO) trains.

Union claim DOO is unsafe – allegations robustly denied by rail industry chiefs who say DOO is safely used across large parts of the UK.

Aslef, which controls the vast majority of Southern drivers, has six times brought the Southern network to a halt with 24-hour strikes.

The RMT, which represents guards and on-board supervisors has staged 34 walkouts so far – but Southern insists it will keep the majority of services running during the next strikes.

The two unions remain at loggerheads – last month furious RMT leaders revealed Aslef had reached a “secret” deal with Southern.

An insider close to negotiations said: “There is no deal yet on the table and the whole thing could still unravel.”

There will be more meetings between Aslef and GTR and then any proposal would again be put to ballot among the union’s near 1,000 drivers – that will take weeks so any final decision is unlikely until some time in November.

Neither side were saying anything today. However, it is understood latest negotiations may have made progress on union demands that a second qualified member of staff will always be on board or that train will not run. GTR is insisting that under “exceptional circumstances” a train can run with just the driver.

Agreement with Aslef would mean huge relief for Southern’s 300,000 plus a day passengers using the busiest routes in the UK.

The dispute has cost the local business sector tens of millions of pounds in staff time and revenue; houses prices have fallen along major routes with reports of some commuters losing their job because they were constantly late for work.

This time Aslef leaders say they are confident enough to again recommend a deal for acceptance.