A REPORT into crisis-hit Southern Rail will call for the company to have some of its services cut.

The review, which is due to be published in the coming weeks, will propose that some services should be moved to other operators to make its parent company Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) focus on London commuter routes, The Times reported.

It doesn’t demand the full renationalisation of GTR but instead says “practical steps” must be taken to reduce the size of the franchise.

The report is expected to criticise the £1 billion-a-year contract handed to the company by the Department for Transport (DfT).

More than a quarter of the network’s trains, which carry 300,000 passengers daily, have been recorded as late over the last year.

Industry expert Chris Gibb was brought in to produce the report for the DfT. A DfT spokeswoman said: “Improving rail services for Southern passengers is a priority for the Government and for the operator. We have received Chris Gibb’s report and are looking at it before we publish it in due course.”

Some opposition MPs have called for GTR, which also runs Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern, to be separated or put under public ownership.

The report will seek to spread the blame but it will not recommend the end of the franchise. He said it should be reviewed regularly and made more manageable.

GTR’s franchise was signed off in 2014 and is run as a management contract with the taxpayer bearing the financial risk due to disruption created by projects such as the Thameslink upgrade.

Mr Gibb’s report is expected to criticise the deal for effectively letting GTR operate with no “revenue risk”.

The taxpayer picked up a £38 million bill for loss of revenue caused by strikes last year and more than £10 million has been paid in compensation to its passengers.

A further part of the report will criticise timetabling, with many empty trains running in the middle of the night and ongoing problems during rush hour in London.

The report will also attack the lack of coherence between Network Rail and the train company.