Transport for London should be handed immediate control of Southern Rail so it can get to grips with the daily crisis facing commuters, Sadiq Khan said today.
The Mayor has written to new Transport Secretary Chris Grayling asking for TfL to be put in charge of the service until problems causing misery to thousands of passengers can be resolved.
It comes after he branded Southern an “embarrassment to our city” last week as he urged the Government to strip its operator of its franchise.
He called on the DfT to take temporary control of operations from Govia Thameslink Railway - but today went one step further saying that TfL was best equipped to run the routes.
Mr Khan wants to put an experienced TfL team in charge of the failing franchise until the Government is able to resolve the longer-term problems that have led to widespread disruption for thousands of commuters.
GTR brought in an emergency timetable last week with 350 services cancelled a day, leaving commuters crammed onto packed trains or stranded on replacement buses.
The decision followed months of delays and cancellations to services.
In his letter ahead of Mayor’s Question Time, Mr Khan wrote: “Thousands of Londoners and longer-distance commuters simply cannot get to and from work, and are understandably furious.
“There is no doubt that the franchise must now be in default, and I have previously called for your Department to step in and take control.
“Notwithstanding the wider discussions on devolution, I now offer to go one step further and put my senior TfL team in charge of the GTR Southern franchise until we get a permanent resolution.”
City Hall believes there is precedent to stripping GTA of the Southern franchise. In 2003 Connex Southeastern lost its franchise eight years early due to poor financial management while in 2007 GNER lost the East Coast mainline for the same reason.
