AN AWARD handed to scandal-struck Southern Railway for customer services has been branded a joke. 

Southern's parent company was praised by judges for the quality of its passenger experience but Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas reacted by saying they must be joking. This came as prime minister David Cameron yesterday branded its services "unacceptable".

Govia Thameslink Railway was highly commended at the Railway Industry Innovation Awards for its efforts in ensuring passengers know what is happening with the service with real time information and free wi-fi at 105 stations across the network.

The company won the top award in two other categories - one for its approach to looking after the environment and another for its work to help young people learn how to be safe when travelling independently on trains.

While the ceremony on Friday focussed on rewarding "innovative" train companies, passengers continued to endure nearly two months of delays, cancellations as well as strikes. The train company blamed the ongoing problems on an unprecedented staff shortage due to sickness. The sickness has been criticised as a guise for unofficial industrial action, which has been categorically denied by union bosses.

Ms Lucas, who will quiz train bosses in a meeting on July 7, asked if it was April Fool's Day when she learned of the awards news, adding: "They have got to be joking."

Judges praised Govia Thameslink's environment team who worked to make sure sustainability was at the top of the agenda.

The company achieved a 85 per cent recycling rate across the whole network with more stations no longer sending waste to landfill. In the last year more than 6,000 children were given information about the company's Go-Learn campaign which teaches them how to stay safe while travelling alone on a train and coincided with work in schools.

Charles Horton, chief executive of the franchise, said: "It's wonderful these great projects have been recognised. We are providing something for everyone and I am very proud of all the teams involved in helping to improve our services further."

During Prime Minister's Questions in response to calls for an end to train misery from Horsham MP Jeremy Quinn, Mr Cameron condemned any sort of industrial action which affects passengers but said they "deserved better" from Southern as the train service is "unacceptable".

He said the government would be providing a "more generous" compensation scheme with more detail to be announced by the transport secretary soon.

Train bosses will appear in front of 11 MPs, including the member for Bexhill and Battle Huw Merriman, sitting on the Transport Select Committee on Monday. The meeting, due to take place this week, was postponed due to the result of the EU referendum. They will answer questions amid the parliamentary body's enquiry on improving rail passenger experience.

  • Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, has organised a public meeting with Govia Thameslink chief operating officer Dyan Crowther at All Saints Church in Hove from 1.30pm to 3pm on Saturday where commuters can question the company. To attend the free meeting register at peterkyle.co.uk/rail_meeting.