Southern railway bosses have lodged an appeal after their legal attempt to stop next week’s strike by train drivers was rejected by a High Court judge.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), Southern’s parent company, sought an injunction against the train drivers’ union Aslef but was rebuffed yesterday (Thursday 8 December).
This afternoon the train operator said: “GTR, parent company of Southern Railway, has confirmed it has lodged an urgent application at the Court of Appeal against the High Court decision on (Thursday) 8 December refusing an injunction to prevent industrial action by Aslef.
GTR is seeking to stop a series of nine strike days by Southern drivers which will begin on next Tuesday (13 December) and an overtime ban by Southern drivers which took effect on last Tuesday (6 December) and is expected to go on indefinitely.
Charles Horton, chief executive of GTR, said: “This industrial action is having a severe and significant impact on our ability to run our train services and causing massive disruption to the 500,000 passengers who travel with us every day.
“We were granted permission yesterday by the judge to make an urgent appeal and we have a duty to our passengers to do all we can to prevent the wholly unjustified industrial action continuing.
“Our passengers have suffered months of travel misery and we call again on the unions to call off their action and work with us to find a resolution to their dispute.”
No date has been set yet for the Court of Appeal hearing.
I commute to London Victoria full time from Brighton these last few months have been horrific.
I am constantly late and this takes its toll on my personal record. The problem i have is that i am a train driver for London underground Victoria line and if i am late it has a knock on effect on my line. I am an RMT representative and womens officer at our Finsbury park branch and i completely understand why the strikes are happening and i am in full support, however my day as a commuter means on top of my shift work and union duties my day can be up to 15 hours long. I am exhausted and have no free time, i eat shower and commute and work.
Its become impossible to the point that i have requested to reduce my hours and also must move house.
I am stressed out that i cannot afford London house prices and yet i love my job, so i have no choice but to commute. I will be looking at alternate railway services that are regular with less engineering works.
Please i would like to express my story to show that it is not just office workers that suffer and that other railway services are suffering because of the impact of staff traveling with Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick express.