1,000 signatures reached
To: Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport
Southern Fail: Time for action on Southern Rail

Strip Govia of the Southern Rail franchise, and ensure Southern Rail services are properly staffed and run in the public interest.
Why is this important?
Had enough of paying more but getting less from Southern Rail? Southern Rail, run by Govia Thameslink Railways, is a franchising failure with trains often delayed, cancelled and overcrowded. Despite these failures, Southern still received £42m in net subsidies from the taxpayer in 2014-15 and paid out £22m in shareholder dividends. It’s a rip-off and Southern should be stripped of the franchise.
While fares are going up - Southern is proposing to close more ticket offices, remove guards from trains and extend driver only operations. It will be even more difficult to get help when we need it, and this isn’t putting passengers’ safety first.
Southern illustrates the failures of rail privatisation – with profits put before people. The UK government is hostile to public ownership, but Govia is part-owned by French State railways, SNCF. The Southern Rail franchise should be returned to public ownership. We know this can work. Publicly owned East Coast returned over £1bn to the Treasury, had high satisfaction ratings and won over 30 industry awards.
Please take action – sign our petition to Chris Grayling MP, Secretary of State for Transport calling on him to strip Govia of the Southern Rail franchise.
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