A MAN who uses Southern Rail trains assumed its workers were already on strike, he has revealed.
Horsham resident Martin Bishop was confused to hear that staff are still only threatening to down tools because he cannot recall when he last caught a Southern Rail train that ran on time.
Bishop said: “When I saw the headlines about industrial action I thought I must have missed something. Southern Rail has been plagued with major disruptions for as long as I can remember, which I assumed were deliberate.
“I thought they were just doing a thorough job of striking. Trains would consistently run hours late or get cancelled altogether at the last minute, and the dour-faced staff appeared to be working under protest.
“It got to the point where if a train trundled into the station roughly on time I started to worry. I’d assume it was a trap, and once I got on board they would take me hostage and use me as a bargaining chip for something.”
A Southern Rail spokesperson said: “We’ve set the bar so low we’ve got nowhere to go. We could let a bunch of monkeys on crack run things for a bit and nobody would notice a difference. In fact we’d probably hit more of our targets.”
