The Department for Transport has sued Southern rail £13.4 million following 18 months of disruption.
The Go-Ahead group will spend the fine on “customer improvements”, including 50 more members of onboard staff, however unions have said this is “less than a slap on the wrist” for the train company.
“We regard this as a fair outcome, which draws a line under an issue that has been hanging over the franchise for many months.” said a GTR spokesperson.
“The settlement acknowledges that the industrial action taken by the trade unions has been a major contributor to the disruption experienced by passengers in the past year.”
In the contrary head of railway workers’ union RMT, Nick Clash said: “This pathetic response to the abject failure by Southern/GTR to deliver on their contract does not even stack up to a slap on the wrist,”
“No wonder the company are gloating. [Transport secretary] Chris Grayling has let them off the hook big style.
“This is yet another case of the Government and their rail industry cronies investigating themselves while the services they are responsible for are a global laughing stock.”
Grayling wrote to theChief Executive of GTR: “Performance on Southern has improved dramatically since Christmas, as the disruption from union activity has decreased. But that performance is still not good enough.
“Passengers who depend on Southern have been badly let down. The union industrial action that has so often disrupted services is totally unjustified and must stop now. But GTR must also do better in providing services to its passengers.
“When trains are cancelled unnecessarily it can cause huge disruption. And when trains are shorter than they ought to be, it can leave already busy services unbearably crowded.”
Whilst unions and commuter groups hoped the government would sack the company behind Southern Railway, this was never going to happen as it would pander to ideas of rail nationalisation.