Southern Rail strike and engineering works disrupt commuters

Passengers travelling on Southern Rail have had their journeys badly disrupted by both a strike and overrunning engineering works.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are holding a three-day strike in protest at the removal of conductors from trains.

Services have been cut by a third and engineering works between Brighton and Gatwick Airport meant trains were cancelled or delayed by up to an hour.

Passengers gave a glimpse of their frame of mind via social media, with many questioning why engineering works had been scheduled the night before a strike.

One tweeted: "Total chaos this morning, no trains at all to London due to over running engineering works combined with a strike."

Another said he had spent £50 on a taxi to get to work.

One Brighton resident told how she had given up her job in London because of the train service problems.

Francesca Purcell said: "It's really tough and it just made my working week so much harder. I luckily found a job in Brighton and changed to that, but it had been really tough."

University employee Patrick Schroeder arrived to find his train running late. He said: "I only have a short trip to Falmer but the trains still cause me a bit of disruption.

"Today I expected to have a train but that's not running on time, so I will probably have to take the bus."

Carpenter Nigel Hollings, 58, broadly supported the RMT action, saying: "It is an inconvenience but I agree with what they are striking about because when you've got a 12-carriage train the driver can't see everything.

Charles Horton, chief executive of Southern's owner, Govia Thameslink Railway, admitted it had been an "extremely challenging period," but insisted it was necessary to modernise the services.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash has accused Southern of "peddling lies".

Mr Cash said: "Once again this morning Southern have been peddling the lie that this dispute is about who opens and closes the doors when, in fact, it's about the retention of a guaranteed, second safety-critical member of staff, with the full range of safety competencies, on all current services.

"Southern have tried every dirty trick in the book to try and turn the public against the front-line rail staff whose only crime is standing up for safety on our railways while the parent company ... are hoarding £100m in profits."