Maybe, just maybe they don't want to make it political but the Unions sure do. Thameslink have DO trains, presumably ASLEF/RMT are happy with this. No trains today between Gatwick and Brighton..happy Christmas brothers...

DOO was agreed with TL when they were running 4/8 cars and there was 67% less passengers.
They also have superior CCTV and stop at mostly manned stations.

Southern stop at mostly unmanned stations, have s***ty CCTV and as stated... passenger numbers have rocketed by nearly 70%

Both sides are culpable. Saying that one is worse than the other is misleading.

He unions have heir agenda and the government theirs. The ones who suffer are the commuters.

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

Just spoke to one of the managers at Southern. They plan to let the strike next week to go ahead. If cracks appear in the strike, they will offer drivers £££. If no cracks, they will talk to ASLEF.
Although the RSSB accepted the CCTV, there seems to be a problem with getting indemnity insurance for drivers involved with incidents (trap n drag). It seems the CCTV is not up to scratch in certain areas. So Southern have had to put platform staff at a few stations and guards back on trains during hours of darkness at a few stations.

Now, I've never heard of indemnity insurance for drivers involved in trap n drag. This is either Southern protecting themselves against problems they think might arise, or something they are offering drivers to put them at ease, maybe they're worried about being sued. We are living in litigious times.

This begs the question RSSB says it's safe... insurance company says it's not. Who to believe?

Drivers aren't happy with it, the trains Southern use have 15 year old CCTV, the cost to upgrade all Southern's trains is prohibitive, so Southern will offer to upgrade it over time, thus spreading the cost. It's not just the installation, it's a logistical nightmare and they don't have enough fitters to maintain their current stock.

Can't see ASLEF agreeing to this, there is no trust there. What has always been a tricky relationship is now bordering on hatred (from both sides)

DfT who have been unwavering in their support, are now starting to grow inpatient.

I get your points, but Southern forcing through DOO on January 1st, then admitting on Jan 4th they haven't trained drivers does lend itself to this being rushed in, in a unsafe manner.

Also they insisted the CCTV was fine, but have now said they will upgrade the units with poor quality CCTV and have been unable to insure drivers at certain locations due to poor quality cctv. At these locations Southern have had to restore guards during the hours of 1630-0830. This seems to show that the drivers who said the CCTV was piss poor were right.

The implementation of DOO has been a farce. The manager I spoke to sounded embarrassed by it all, and was worried if him being associated with Southern at the time they f***ed up DOO will leave a professional stain on his CV.

Also Southern are losing drivers, some are taking early retirement others are going to different TOCs. Losing drivers is a financial nightmare. A fully trained driver can save Southern £50,000 a day in fines... cancelling one train costs thousands. Each minute of delay can cost £90 a min. If one train is delayed one min at Hassocks, the train behind will be delayed and the train behind that etc. A 2 min delay can cost Southern nearly 2k. This makes drivers a valuable commodity. Losing drivers will make its way to boardroom level.

There are dangerous conditions because drivers are not working overtime. That is, quite simply, the factual position - irrespective of the reasons why there are not enough drivers.

When they work overtime the platforms are not so crowded and that is part of their contract. They are not working overtime as part of the strike.