Chris Grayling faces a judicial review on his handling of Southern Railway if he does make a decision on the franchise within 14 days.

The High Court made the ruling today after hearing an application by the Association of British Commuters (ABC) for a judicial review into the way the transport secretary has dealt with Southern.

The operator has been hit by a year of disruption because of industrial action taken by unions over driver-only controlled trains, staff shortages and other problems.

Mr Justice Ouseley said he required Mr Grayling, MP for Epsom and Ewell, to make his decision within 14 days.

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James Hodivala of the ABC group told Mr Ouseley that there had been an unreasonable delay in the government deciding whether the travel disruption experienced by passengers was caused by unforeseen circumstances – a ‘force majeure’ – and so outside of Southern’s control.

Mr Grayling had not reached a decision after 14 months’ work, which amounted to an “unreasonable” delay and was at the heart of whether he had complied with his public law duty, the judge was told.

Mr Hodivala also claimed there had been a "lack of transparency" over the benchmarks Southern had to achieve under its contract.

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Clive Sheldon, for the transport secretary, said Mr Grayling was "fully aware" of the inconvenience suffered by Southern's 300,000 passengers.

A decision on the force majeure issue was "imminent", which would be followed by the question of whether any enforcement action needed to be taken.

"The question of remedy will be a later decision, but not a significantly later decision," he said.

The process of deciding if the disruption was outside Southern's control had been "complex and difficult" but a decision was about to be made, the judge was told.

Mr Sheldon suggested it was acceptable to give an order that Mr Grayling will produce a report on the issue within 14 days.

The judge rejected the commuter group's argument that the Government was in breach of equality legislation because of problems with access suffered by disabled passengers.

He ordered that the ABC should pay two-thirds of the Transport Secretary's £25,900 legal costs.

Emily Yates, co-founder of the ABC, said outside court: "We have already had a precedent set when the judge agreed you should not wait until kingdom come for a decision to be made.

"We are disappointed he did not accept our case about disability access, but we regard today as a victory - and our campaign will continue."

The two-and-a-half-hour hearing was held as Southern drivers started an overtime ban which led to the cancellation of hundreds of services.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We are pleased the High Court has thrown out the application for a judicial review by the Association of British Commuters.

"An independent report by rail expert Chris Gibb, which was published last week, made it very clear that the responsibility for disruption on Southern was primarily caused by industrial action led by RMT and Aslef and exceptional levels of staff sick leave.

"We have been considering whether the extensive disruption to the line last year was entirely beyond GTR's control and our decision was due to be communicated to the company imminently. We are more than happy to inform GTR of the verdict within the 14 days required by the judge."