An argument over the role of Southern Railway conductors’ could be resolved at less than £1m, it has been claimed.

The government announced £20m to improve services, however, the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said less than £1 million of the Government's money could be used to settle the row.

Union members went on strike on Wednesday, causing more delays for thousands of commuters who use the service.

The RMT said it had calculated that simply filling 20 guard posts which were effectively “deleted” by the company in January would guarantee a second safety-critical person on the trains.

The union estimated that the total cost would be "comfortably less" than £1 million.

RMT general Secretary Mick Cash said the key issue at the heart of the dispute is that GTR (Southern's owners) have refused to agree that passengers will keep the guarantee they currently have of a safety critical conductor/on-board service supervisor staff on their train in addition to the driver.

He said: “The company say this is because, in the event of the conductor OBS not being available, they have to cancel trains.

“However, the key plank of Southern's argument is in fact a lie - non-availability of conductors as a cause of train cancellations is almost statistically irrelevant, accounting for 0.06% of cancellations, according to information provided the company to MPs.

“That equates to less than one train a day, whereas the Southern mismanagement of the franchise accounts for hundreds of cancellations.

“The cost of staffing up to a level that would meet the safety guarantees, improve dramatically the level of passenger service and resolve the dispute would be a faction of the cash Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has thrown at Southern and the profits being stockpiled by Govia.”

The latest strike will end at midnight but more walkouts are planned over Christmas and the New Year.

A spokesman for Southern Rail said: "We offered the RMT a guarantee around numbers of on-board supervisors and indeed we are already recruiting an additional 100 people into this role.

"The sticking point isn't the number of staff, it is the RMT's determination to hang on to its union muscle by insisting a train could never leave without an OBS even if that means stranding hundreds of passengers.

"This isn't about money this is about muscle."