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Charles Horton's resignation is a sideshow. Only a nationalised railway will put the public first

CHARLES HORTON’S resignation as chief executive of Govia Thameslink bears all the hallmarks of a corporate damage-limitation exercise or taking one for the team.

He has been the top face card for GTR, but the hostility directed against rail trade unionists, especially RMT members defending the rights of staff and passengers, particularly with regard to safety, permeates the entire operation.

Horton’s claim to recognise passengers’ huge frustration and to suggest that “a new pair of hands” is all that is required to make everything sweet again is nonsense.

The pretence of an honourable decision to take responsibility for what even Theresa May called the “totally unacceptable” level of chaos in GTR franchises where half of scheduled train services were axed without notice after the company introduced a new timetable on May 20 doesn’t fool anyone.

Horton’s decision to walk the plank is designed to take the pressure off GTR, Transport Secretary Chris “Failing” Grayling and the entire rail privatisation scandal.

His boss David Brown, the chief executive of GTR parent company Go-Ahead, made this clear in his eulogy to Horton, praising his hard work under “often challenging conditions” and hailing the new day when GTR will, in co-operation with the DfT and Network Rail, “deliver a reliable, punctual service for passengers.”

It’s a classic case of the king is dead, long live the king — an individual bites the dust, but the system survives.

That is not what the rail industry, rail unions, staff, passengers or taxpayers need or want.

As RMT general secretary Mick Cash makes clear, “This whole basket-case operation is a failure on every level.”

GTR and other franchises in England have conspired with Grayling to trim safety provisions across the network by removing the requirement for a safety-critical guard to be on every service.

It is a cost-saving and profits-enhancing measure on a par with the decision of Kensington & Chelsea councillors to cut expenditure on renovation of Grenfell Tower.

The RMT dispute — demeaned by right-wing media and politicians as simply a “who pushes the button to close the doors” question to protect employment levels — is about preventing future rail tragedies when a lone driver can’t manage an emergency situation.

If franchises in Scotland and Wales can make agreements with SNP and Labour governments there to maintain adequate staffing, what prevents their English counterparts from doing so?

Part of the answer is that the Tory government has indemnified privateers against losses incurred through strike action. Taxpayers are guaranteeing corporate profits and shareholder dividends without being asked for their agreement.

Employers who trade safety for profits are gambling with other people’s lives and will orchestrate a chorus of “no-one expected that, but let’s learn for the future” when the pay-off for their greed comes eventually to pass.

GTR knew when the new timetable would be launched. It ought to have ensured it had sufficient numbers of route-trained drivers for the required services.

It didn’t for the simple reason that its priority is the bottom line.

Rail services are a disgrace across England, not least in the dangerously overcrowded and irregular trains that bring millions of commuters into London each year.

Over two decades of privatised railways have shown that the vision of private-sector efficiency and innovation forecast by Tory prime minister John Major was just a fantasy world.

Experiences on the east coast mainline have shown conclusively that public is best. Individual resignations mean nothing. It’s time to return all our railways to public ownership.

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