"I would welcome this". It's
something you wouldn't expect to hear - Tory MPs don't normally offer a
warm greeting to the idea of renationalising part of the rail network.
Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, has been calling for the government to strip the company of its contract since last May.
It would mean placing it back into public hands, at least for the time being, but it's a price Chris is willing to pay.
"The franchise is too big and the current finance structure doesn't incentivise the company to perform", he says.
"The unions must take their share of the blame, but the company has also been incompetent."
If the government did take over, it would remove the top layer of executives, replacing them with yet more top executives, probably semi-retired former rail bosses. The rest of Southern's staff would stay the same.
And they'd be facing the same problems:
- Solving the longest running industrial dispute since the network was privatised. Southern has imposed changes to the role of on-board conductors, changes the unions loathe and the government supports. Doubtless the new government team would support them too.
- Sorting engineering problems that are nothing to do with the dispute. Network Rail is actually responsible for half of Southern's delays. Ministers recently formed a task force to bash some heads together, because they said Southern and Network Rail weren't collaborating to solve problems.
- Plugging a driver shortage.
- Terrible staff relations. Several drivers have said to me that they are dealing with the same "decent" local managers that they've been dealing with for years, but the tone from the top has become more "vindictive" and "petty".
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