Passengers on one of the biggest commuter routes into London could experience further disruption after conductors on Southern Railway voted to strike.
A ballot held by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) saw more than 70% backing strike action in a dispute over staff shortages on the network.
A Southern spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We have worked really hard to solve this with the union. We have made them a proposal which they are thinking about, and we wait to hear from them.”
The union said it would still be available for talks despite the strike mandate.
The RMT’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “The staffing shortages on Southern are a disgrace and are creating daily problems.
“This is a vital and lucrative franchise where commuters pay thousands of pounds a year to travel on services that are chronically understaffed, and RMT members have had enough of it.
“This union will not sit back while staffing levels are pared to the bone on rail franchises and our members run ragged, solely in the interests of private company profits.”
The RMT has highlighted problems on the Thameslink trains that interlock with Southern as part of the wider franchise, run by Govia, and said staff shortages there had forced rush-hour cancellations this week.
Meanwhile, train staff on the overnight Scotland-London service, the Caledonian Sleeper, have also voted by a large majority to strike.
The RMT has been in dispute with the franchise operator, Serco, over alleged defects in the service which it says are putting staff at risk.
Cash said members had been unhappy with Serco’s management since the early days of the takeover of the 15-year franchise in March. He added: “This is yet another example of Serco winning public sector contracts and failing to deliver for the taxpayer, passengers and staff.”
The RMT’s ire was further stoked by government confirmation of an additional, foreign state-owned train operator being added to the list of approved bidders for British rail franchises from Tuesday.
Cash said that Trenitalia, owned by the Italian government, would now join “the usual list of chancers, failures, spivs and foreign state operators”. He said it proved that the government “will happily have any state running our rail services as long as it isn’t the British state”.
