THE GOVERNMENT will have to respond to calls for Southern to be stripped of their franchise after more than 10,000 passengers complained about their services.

In the last week thousands more passengers put their name to a petition calling for changes to the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) contract which operates Southern Railway.

The number of signatures has met the threshold for a government response within days and are still rising.

Yesterday figures showed 1,581 people in Brighton and Hove signed the petition as part of a total of 4,736 across Sussex and scores of others in Greater London boroughs and Hertfordshire. If more than 100,000 sign it will prompt a debate in parliament.

Clive Hudson, who launched the petition, said the franchise was providing an "unacceptable level of service" to passengers, adding: "This company's punctuality and level of customer service is severely lacking and is damaging the lives and economy of those served by this operator."

Craig Tanner, a long term commuter from Eastbourne to Brighton, claimed the service was "utterly laughable".

The surge of signatures came after strikes by conductors and widespread cancellations of service causing chaos for passengers.

There were 1,066 days of conductors absence in the last 32 working days, according to figures released by Southern yesterday.

This equates to one in six guards taking sickness leave in the last month or 74 out of 470 having at least one day of sickness.

An average of 83 services are being cancelled on a daily basis due to ongoing problems with staff shortages.

It previously refused to release figures to The Argus despite repeated requests, saying it would be "misleading" to do so.

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas, one of a number of members calling for talks over the franchise, said it had been "consistently failing passengers".

She added: "Like any regular train user in Brighton I am sick and tired of hearing half-baked excuses for the abysmal service on offer.

"If this service doesn’t improve then the franchise should be removed – it’s as simple as that. I’ll be meeting the rail minister soon to make the case for the urgent action we need to see to fix these problems."

A Southern spokesman said: "We are doing our very best to improve punctuality to give passengers the quality service they deserve. The franchise is about transforming the railway, a process which has already started with the introduction of new trains on Thameslink and Gatwick Express. We know there is more to do and are determined to do all we can to improve our passenger service."

The company continued to seek an injunction to prevent another strike at the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Factfile

The number of people who have signed the petition per constituency so far include:

629 - Brighton Pavilion

646 - Hove

306 - Brighton Kemptown

410 - East Worthing and Shoreham

290 - West Worthing

231 - Lewes

219 - Eastbourne

308 - Arundel and South Downs

231 - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton

170 - Chichester

588 - Horsham

538 - Mid Sussex

170 - Wealden

Thousands more across Surrey, Greater London and Hertfordshire