Southern loses court bid to halt strikes

Hundreds of thousands of people will face major disruption from midnight tonight after Southern Rail lost a court bid to try and halt strikes by train drivers.

The company's owners, Govia Thameslink Railway, lost a legal bid in the High Court last week to stop the strikes, and decided to lodge an appeal.

But today three Court of Appeal judges backed the High Court's refusal to grant an injunction, aimed at blocking what GTR called "unprecedented" strike action.

Around 300,000 passengers will now face severe disruption across the whole network tomorrow. The service will be so bad that Southern are simply advising passengers 'not to travel' - which has caused a backlash on social media from those who rely on the service and are unable to take time off work.

The strike by the Aslef and RMT unions starts at midnight tonight and will run all day on 13th, 14th and 16th December. The walkout is part of a long running dispute over the introduction of Driver-Only-Operated trains.