I am, though, working as hard as I can to ensure that the problems on the Southern routes are dealt with as quickly as possible. The industrial dispute remains an ongoing issue. But it is not the only problem.
At the moment GTR, the train operating company, runs the trains, and Network Rail runs the tracks and the signals. But if things go wrong, the tendency is for those involved to blame each other and not work together to sort them out quickly. That must change now. So I am establishing a Project Board, which will be led by one of the most senior figures in the rail industry, to fix this, and to create one single team that works together to run this railway better.
In addition, there are too many little breakdowns which cause chaos on the network. So I’ve put in place a £20m scheme to tackle some of the causes of these breakdowns.
Southern have also started to put back some of the services that were withdrawn temporarily in the summer, and I hope the rest will return shortly. I can’t promise overnight improvement, but I am determined that we will sort things out and believe that things will start to get better.