Government and rail bosses slammed after South Western makes loss of £137m

South Western Railway (SWR) and the government have been slammed after they laid out “contingency plans” following the company’s £137million loss last financial year.

Transport Secretary MP Grant Shapps said this week in an update on the company that “financial statements have indicated that the franchise is not sustainable in the long term”.

Mr Shapps has outlined potential contingency measures that could include bringing the company into public ownership or seeking a new short-term contract.

But Leonie Cooper, the London Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth, an area which SWR trains pass through, said her constituents had been let down time and again by the company.

Ms Cooper said: “Local commuters have been let down time and time again by the complete lack of reliability and punctuality of SWR services. To add insult to injury, they are being ripped off on a yearly basis by exorbitant rail fare increases.

“Recent figures showing that the franchise made a loss of £137 million in the last financial year prove that the current model is completely dysfunctional and in need of a comprehensive shake-up.

“This now presents a golden opportunity for the Government to urgently opt for the sensible solution and devolve metro services on the line to the more capable hands of TfL. This is something that I, and countless others, have long been arguing for”.

Mr Shapps’ statement also mentioned “significant disruption from industrial action by RMT”.

“These strikes are not about safety, accessibility or helping passengers,” Mr Shapps added.

SWR workers went on strike for 27 days in December over the role of guards on trains.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “This government is acting like a puppet for the rail companies, throwing good public money after bad and trying to breathe life into the rotting corpse of privatised rail.

“Instead of dreaming up new ways to subsidise private sector profits by attacking civil liberties, he should stop pushing cost-cutting driver-only operation and bring SWR into public ownership, running it in the interests of passengers and workers, not his mates in the City.”