This severe disruption makes travelling on Southern services a misery for our constituents. It’s unacceptable and we call on the rail unions to end their wholly unacceptable ongoing dispute with GTR over the introduction of Driver-Only Operation (DOO) on more Southern services. We urge GTR to do more to improve the reliability of passenger’s journeys during this period. We support the change to DOO on more services; not only is this reform a condition of GTR’s franchise agreement but it will improve customer service on board trains. Conductors who are currently responsible for opening and closing doors will be freed from this task and will then be able to focus on interacting with passengers. Contrary to union claims, this will not adversely affect the safety of customers. DOO has been in place for almost thirty years on trains operating on more than a third of the UK’s rail network and, with this change only taking place on modern trains and with new vehicles coming into service on the network, high safety standards are assured. In response to the growing number of passengers using Southern trains, the Government has invested more than £2bl of taxpayers money in new, longer, state of the art trains; the Class 700s. Those trains are ready for introduction on Southern services. Union bosses have chosen to dispute the introduction of this technology despite the fact that ASLEF members already drive 'doors operated by drivers' trains on many other Southern routes. The Unions have refused to engage in changing the job specification so, to comply with legal technicalities, Southern has to create a new role. Southern has promised that this new role will be open to all conductors and will not result in any job losses or pay reduction. Most passengers reading this may consider how their own job may have evolved, they will not have gone on strike in these circumstances. Continuing strikes and unofficial industrial action – promoted by the RMT union – impacts fare-paying passengers far more than it benefits the members of the union. It is time the union stopped this irresponsible and selfish course of action and entered into constructive discussions with GTR, which continues to offer the option of mediation through ACAS. As well as calling for this disruption to end, we have been engaged in meetings with GTR and spoke to the company’s CEO last week about what more can be done to lessen the disruption caused to passengers. We pushed for two improvements: Firstly, a better formatted timetable to reflect the smaller number of services GTR is able to run with certainty per day. This will give passengers greater ability to plan their journey. Secondly, implementation of effective bus replacement services so that, if train travel is impossible, customers can still make their journeys. The union needs to recognise the harm industrial action is causing to local people, cancel strike action, and bring disruption to an end. We will continue to monitor the situation and do what we can to help our constituents through it. Amber Rudd MP Huw Merriman MP