COMMUTERS are at the complete mercy of protagonists in the Southern rail dispute.

Government ministers, train bosses and union representatives wake up every morning determined to get one over on each other.

The concerns of passengers – their livelihoods seriously blighted by the impasse – are a secondary consideration.

The situation can’t go on: it’s time to bring in the Army to drive the trains on strike days. Readers of a certain age will remember the Green Goddesses, adapted military appliances that were used in the 1970s when fire crews went out on strike.

The rationale was that while regular crews had a fundamental right to withdraw their labour, citizens had a superior right to see their homes prevented from burning down.

Of course, as a Labour politician and a trade union member, I would like to see this sorry saga brought to a negotiated settlement.

The only long-term solution is some form of renationalisation.

People are fed up with seeing the sheer misery that this dispute is visiting on local residents.

Some of the stories of sacked commuters and people missing out on their kids growing up are heartrending.

It takes 15 weeks to qualify a train driver or guard.

The Army should now be told to train enough personnel.

Such a move would protect the travelling public while giving all sides in this dispute a major incentive to reach a deal.

At the end of all this, the directors and shareholders of Southern should be handed a bill from the taxpayer for the cost of the Army stepping in.

  • Brighton and Hove City councillor Tom Bewick represents Westbourne ward