AFTER a year of strikes on Southern Rail, commuters have expressed their dismay that the industrial dispute which has brought such misery to so many still rumbles on.

Today marks one year since the first of more than 30 strikes which have brought the network to its knees and caused rail passengers to struggle to keep their jobs and families intact.

With Southern’s owners Govia Thameslink (GTR) and rail union the RMT locked in further talks this week, but no positive indications from either side, the dispute looks set to continue into this summer.

Meanwhile the Rail Minister Paul Maynard and the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling once again ducked The Argus’s invitation for an interview to explain to commuters what steps were being taken to bring the dispute to a final conclusion.

Commuter Ben Lambert, a consultant for a private tuition provider, said: “Like a lot of Southern passengers I’ve got strike fatigue over the past 12 months and I’m appalled that after a year the dispute is still ongoing.”

The dispute centres on the role of the conductors, now called on-board supervisors, and whether it is safe and reasonable for trains to run by means of driver-only operation (DOO).

Two independent reports have said the DOO can be safe but safety campaigners have argued that at Sussex stations, a lack of staff on platform or carriage is a potential safety risk and has led to disabled passengers being unable to board or get off the train.

A spokesman for Southern’s parent company Govia Thameslink Railway said: “We’re deeply sorry for the disruption passengers have faced and the effect it has had on the local economy in the past year on Southern, due in the main to industrial action in one form or another. “ A spokesman for RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “From day one this dispute has been about defending the principle of a safe and accessible railway for all and retaining that second safety-critical member of staff on Southern Rail services.

“It really is as simple as that.”

Southern has run 90 per cent of services during the most recent strikes but the dispute goes on.

‘THERE WERE MANY TIMES I CRIED OVER IT’

AS a year’s worth of stories opposite show, it has been a brutal 12 months for Sussex commuters and The Argus has done its best to cover the long-running dispute as well as bringing pressure to bear on all sides.

These stories carry the bylines of half a dozen different writers.

We have sent reporters to London to track down ministers and left entire pages blank to shame key parties into engaging with the dispute – but to no avail.

Our readers have been no less vocal and committed to forcing this wearying dispute to a close.

There have been protests, marches, banners and placards.

There have been outpourings of grief on social media and demonstrations on station platforms and outside Parliament.

But still, a year after the first RMT strike over the introduction of driver-only operation on Southern Rail trains, yesterday the RMT and Govia Thameslink were locked in talk over the dispute and neither side had anything positive to say by the end of the day.

Those who suffered through the worst of the strike-affected days last summer are dismayed that it continues to rumble on.

Ben Lambert, a consultant for a private tuition provider, said: “Like a lot of Southern passengers I’ve got strike fatigue over the past 12 months and I’m appalled that after a year the dispute is still ongoing.

“I’m now used to adapting my working routine when I can, to work from home more or leave earlier when travelling up to London or other locations.

“As a Brighton season ticket holder the matchday train service has been shocking. During the week the service has improved slightly over the last couple of months but from a very low base so that’s not really a positive.

“At this stage I’m not sure what’s more unlikely – a resolution to the dispute that leads to an improvement in service or a change of Government that will lead to Southern losing their franchise.

“Both with very long odds if the opinion polls are to be believed.”

Brighton-based rail campaigner Emily Yates, of the Association of British Commuters, blamed the Government and warned that a legal challenge the group began last year will soon have its day in the High Court.

She said: “It’s been a year of deceit and that deceit has come from the Government as well as the company, but ultimately the Government because they’re in control of the contract.

“Our legal challenge got crowd funded back in September and the case has almost been granted so we’re going to go ahead to the high court, that’ll be any day now.”

“We’re taking the Department for Transport to court on two main areas.

“One is the very unhealthy relationship they have with GTR – this is a public service with a private company subcontracting and they’ve been allowed to act with complete impunity.

“The other half is the issue of equality of access, especially disabled access. We have unstaffed staions and trains, we’ve had disabled people being left behind on stations and that’s a breach of the Equality Act.”

Sarah McStravick, who suffers from cerebral palsy, has been at the forefront of many of the year’s protests.

She said: “It’s been a year of hell especially for the disabled community and there’s no end in sight for us.

“Seaford was cut off for months and businesses, social life, the whole town suffered.”

She said struggling to get on and off rail replacement buses, often after a long day of work and in the cold, had left her exhausted and emotionally traumatised.

She said: “And then I had the thought, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do it all again tomorrow’.

“There were plenty of times I cried over it.”

Robin Marchant, 39, from Worthing, commutes to Victoria five days a week. He said: “From July til January was horrendous. I regularly had four-hour commutes and nightmare journeys.

“At its worst, I had three journeys a week, especially the ones on the way home, where there were cancellations and delays and that was two and a half hours instead of one hour.

“So instead of getting home at 6pm it was 7.30pm or 8pm and the kids go to bed half six, 7pm, so I was regularly not seeing them.”

The operator Govia, the union the RMT and the Government have all come in for criticism over the last year.

At a Transport Select Committee hearing last year, Bexhill MP Huw Merriman challenged RMT leader Mick Cash to accept that the strike was in part about jobs as well as over safety.

And many protesters including the Association of British Commuters have laid the blame squarely at the doors of the Government, pointing to the unusual arrangement whereby Govia operates a contract closer to a management agreement than a true franchise, with very little of the risk lying with the operator.

But some still strongly back the union in the face of opposition from the Government and the operator.

Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas said: “I know that the RMT’s year-long fight against the extension of driver-only operation has been driven by genuine concern for passenger safety and for equal access to the railways.

“The presence of a guard is not a luxury, it’s a necessity and shouldn’t be too much to expect on our railways.

“The guards know what safety critical training means.

“They know they are needed and they are rightly standing firm.

‘I’m pleased that the union and the rail company are marking the year anniversary by getting round the table and talking.

“I hope that the Rail Minister will similarly be open to solutions that work for passengers, so many of whom want to see guards kept on the trains.”