Commuters are planning to protest on Monday (July 11) evening at Victoria station against the long-running disruption ravaging Southern Railway services.

The train operator launched a revised timetable on Monday - cutting 341 daily services - following weeks of delays and cancellations which have seen bosses and union leaders at each others' throats.

Exasperated passengers plan to gather at Victoria station from 5.30pm to demonstrate against what they have described as a "commuter hell".

"For nine weeks we have been faced with a commuter hell. Mass cancellations, delays, overcrowding and genuinely dangerous conditions," Tommo Walters wrote in the event listing on Facebook.

He claimed lives were being ruined, relationships broken and livelihoods lost as commuters were stuck in the middle of the dispute between Southern and the unions.

'Join your fellow commuters in a show of anger'

"It's time to come together. Join your fellow commuters in a show of anger," he wrote.

Southern has said the reduced timetable is temporary and was introduced to improve reliability while it works to resolve the dispute.

It says it has focused on maintaining services at the busiest times, with 95% normal capacity at Victoria during morning and peak rush hours.

"This new timetable allows us to target our resources where they are needed most and at the same time give passengers a more predictable service which they can plan their lives around," he said.

Union blames delays on 'systematic mismanagement'

Southern says fewer train crew members have been available since the RMT began industrial action over plans for drivers to close carriage doors.

This led to previous protests at Victoria, with RMT members pointing to one example of a woman being dragged along the platform when her arm got caught in a door at Hayes and Harlington station last year.

But the RMT, which has accused Southern of smearing its members, blames the disruption on what it describes as "gross managerial incompetence and rank profiteering".

It says "systematic mismanagement" by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR, which runs Southern) has failed to recuit sufficient guards and drivers to fill its rosters.

The union has also criticised what it describes as the new "crisis" timetable, which it says is designed to artificially improve the company's performance figures.

"That is a fix of epic proportions and the public will not be fooled by this chicanery," said RMT general secretary Mick Cash.