LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Londoncommuters were left with no train service on Tuesday as thelatest strike in Britain's worst rail dispute in decades broughtmore travel misery the day after major disruption on thecapital's underground system.
Drivers working for Southern Rail, which runs services fromcentral London to Gatwick Airport and Brighton on the southcoast, began a 48-hour stoppage in a dispute about whose job itshould be to open and close the train doors which has alreadyled to more than 25 days of strike action.
Southern, run by Britain's largest train operator GoviaThameslink Railway (GTR) - a joint venture owned byLondon-listed Go-Ahead GOG.L and France's Keolis, said almostnone of its 2,284 services would run and advised its customersnot to travel.
The strike comes a day after millions of commuters were hitby a walkout by staff on the underground network which closedmost metro stations in central London and led to reducedservices, causing gridlock on the roads.
The Southern dispute began last April over plans to extendthe use of driver-only operated (DOO) trains and so reduce thesafety role played by the conductor, a second member of onboardstaff.
The company says many trains on its network and acrossBritain only require a driver, adding the change would not leadto any job losses or pay cuts and that it wants to increase thenumber of staff on board trains.
The unions representing drivers and conductors say it is aserious safety issue. Angry commuters not only blame the twosides in the dispute but also the government which under theterms of the franchise deal has to pick up the compensation billfor passengers but has so far declined to intervene in the row.
It is the longest-running dispute since the privatisation ofthe rail industry in the mid-1990s and there is little sign itis likely to be settled soon.
"With government backing, the company has brokenlong-standing agreements with the union that make sure traindrivers can do their job safely," the ASLEF union said on itswebsite. "No wonder there's been such a huge loss of trust andgoodwill on the part of union members towards the company."
Southern's Chief Operating Officer Nick Brown said theunions wanted to turn the clock back.
"We're not going to give in," he told BBC radio.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Stephen Addison)
