The boss of London’s transport has apologised for his forthright description of commuter train services into the capital as “shit”.
Sir Peter Hendy, the commissioner for Transport for London, said his comments – directed particularly at train company Southeastern – were “unjustified”, although Hendy won widespread assent and praise in some quarters for his frank appraisal.
Hendy said that commuters hated their suburban rail services, which are not under TfL control, and said that Southeastern trains, which carry 600,000 passengers daily, were “like the wild west ... shit, awful”.
Despite the fact that Southeastern has consistently been ranked the worst operator on national passenger-satisfaction surveys, Hendy has now said his comments, made in an interview with Management Today, were excessive.
He has written to David Brown, chief executive of the Go-Ahead Group which runs Southeastern, and David Statham, managing director of Southeastern, to apologise to all employees for the remarks. He wrote: “I am quoted in Management Today being offensive about Southeastern trains and its staff. My comment is unjustified and excessive and I apologise.
“I know everyone there is doing their best to offer a good service in the context of the franchise you have and the infrastructure you operate on.
“If there is a context, the interview was several weeks ago during the worst of the issues at London Bridge. But that’s not an excuse. Passion is no excuse for insult. Sorry.”
However, the TfL boss’s apology has not gone far enough to assuage union anger, as Hendy also described ticket inspectors as being “people who look like the Gestapo”, which the RMT described as an outrageous slur.
RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “Sir Peter Hendy’s expletive-driven comments were clearly a cynical attempt to drag commuter rail services into the TfL operation at a time when his own cuts programme has reduced the tube services he is responsible for to chaos on a regular basis.
“The fact is that it is privatisation and profiteering that has wrecked our train services and the transport commissioner should recognise that hard truth before he resorts to chucking insults at RMT members.”
TfL runs the Tube but has also started to take over parts of the national rail franchises for incorporation into the London Overground network, and has ambitions to run more trains into the capital.
