STRIKING workers on failing Southern Rail offered bosses and the government a “Christmas truce” yesterday in their dispute over attempts to abolish the role of train guards.

Guards’ union RMT said that if Southern and the government accepted an agreement made with other rail privateers it would call off a 48-hour strike due to start today.

The union said the proffered truce is in the hands of the government, which it says it is behind the basket-case franchise’s intransigence over the long-running dispute.