Commenting on today’s High Court ruling ordering the Secretary of State for Transport to produce a report into Southern Rail within 14 days, Andy McDonald MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary said:

“Passengers should not have had to go to the courts to seek accountability.

“Ultimately, the buck stops with the government. Tory ministers, who designed and awarded the franchise, have been ducking their responsibility for Southern’s abysmal service and for directing this unnecessary industrial dispute.

“A Labour government would stand up for the interest of passengers rather than train companies, taking Southern back into public ownership and creating a new body to have strategic oversight for the railway to end the chaos and fragmentation that has plagued Southern.”