Editing Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway) (section)

===2016 amended timetable===
In 2016, the company introduced an "amended timetable [that] would be a temporary measure until staffing returned to normal" to be announced on 5 July. The [[National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers]] (RMT) [[trade union]] said that 350 services would be cancelled every day (the company ran 2,242 weekday services in the previous timetable). The company said it had insufficient personnel, and too many were taking [[sick leave]]; the union denied that high levels of sickness were the cause of cancellations, while agreeing that there were an insufficient number of guards and drivers.<ref name=bbc4072016/>

The government [[Department for Transport]] said that the situation was unacceptable. While the company was obliged to notify the department in advance, this did not amount to giving the company permission for the changes. The RMT union general secretary [[Mick Cash]] said the government had permitted GTR to introduce the emergency timetable, but that it was "nothing to do with staff sickness and everything to do with gross mismanagement of this franchise and the failure to employ enough guards and drivers. ... a cynical and cowardly ploy".<ref name=bbc4072016>{{cite news |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36701300 |title = Southern rail timetable 'loses 350 trains a day' |publisher = BBC News |date = 4 July 2016 |access-date = 4 July 2016 |archive-date = 4 July 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160704092718/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36701300 |url-status = live }}</ref>

The ''[[London Evening Standard]]'' mentioned Southern in an article in June 2016 "Southern rail suggests commuter goes on 100 mile detour to Clapham instead of her normal six minute journey".<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/southern-rail-tells-commuter-to-take-100mile-detour-a3271896.html |title = Southern rail suggests commuter goes 100 mile detour to Clapham instead of her normal six minute journey |website = Evening Standard|location=London |date = 15 June 2016 |access-date = 4 April 2018 |archive-date = 3 July 2017 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170703221636/http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/southern-rail-tells-commuter-to-take-100mile-detour-a3271896.html |url-status = live }}</ref> In June 2016, amongst criticism of the performance of its services, Go-Ahead warned of lower than anticipated profits on its [[Govia Thameslink Railway]] franchises, leading to an 18% drop in the Go-Ahead share price.<ref name=bbc-20160614>{{cite news |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36527097 |title = Thameslink woes hit Go-Ahead shares |publisher = BBC News |date = 14 June 2016 |access-date = 20 June 2016 |archive-date = 17 June 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160617162437/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36527097 |url-status = live }}</ref>

From 31 October 2016, Southern restored the full weekday timetable.<ref>{{cite news |url = http://www.southernrailway.com/southern/news/southern-restores-more-services-to-timetable/ |title = Southern restores more services to the timetable |work = Southern Railway |date = 20 October 2016 |access-date = 28 October 2016 |archive-date = 28 October 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161028220021/http://www.southernrailway.com/southern/news/southern-restores-more-services-to-timetable/ |url-status = live }}</ref>