Martin Abrams – Councillor for Streatham St Leonard’s
The Tory government have backed plans to close train station ticket offices, ignoring the needs of passengers and putting jobs at risk during a cost of living crisis!
On Wednesday 5th July, the Rail Delivery Group, which represents all train operators, with the Conservative Government’s support, has formally launched its plans to close virtually all 1,000 of our ticket offices. While it is sold as ‘modernisation’ that will ‘get people out from behind the glass’, we know that this is about further de-staffing of our stations.
At a time when jobs need to be preserved, and when the use of public transport needs to be encouraged, these callous proposals show the level of disinterest the Tories have for the needs of our residents. Statutory redundancy notices have already been issued for hundreds of railway workers.
The arrangements for ticket office opening hours, set out in Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, are the only statutory regulation of station staffing. Once the ticket offices are gone and the regulations no longer apply, we worry that there will be a further bonfire of jobs that will leave many of our residents without the support they need in accessing our rail network.
The attempts to close our ticket offices are catastrophic news for rail users in Lambeth and in particular for any elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers trying to access the rail network. 180 million journeys were made last year by people who used ticket offices. Attacking these services is not in the interests of passengers. Time is short. Opposition to these closures must be registered with Transport Focus and London Travelwatch by the time the statutory consultation ends on 26th July.
In Lambeth there are proposals to close ticket offices at the following stations:
- Brixton Station (Southeastern)
- Gipsy Hill railway station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Herne Hill railway station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Loughborough Junction station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Streatham Common station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Streatham Hill station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Streatham station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Tulse Hill station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
- Vauxhall station (South Western Railway)
- West Norwood station (Southern/Govia Thameslink)
At the end of the public consultation, the watchdogs can either accept or reject the train company’s proposals. If the proposals are rejected, it will then go to the Secretary of State for a decision.
Lambeth Labour is joining the campaign to fight against these proposed ticket office closures. We will be holding a day of action across stations in Lambeth on Tuesday 18th July from 8am to inform passengers about these proposals, and let them know we are on their side.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Please make sure you sign Lambeth Labour’s Petition here, so we can show the level of opposition to these plans in our borough. Please also make sure you respond to the public consultation before Wednesday 26th July which you can find details of here. We have named the rail companies who operate the ticket offices in our stations above so you know which consultations to respond to.