Passenger watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch are due to reveal their recommendations concerning ticket office closures tomorrow.

Operators in England have proposed the closure of more than 900 offices, and the largest stations such as Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central and London Waterloo are included in their lists.

The Department for Transport wants to reduce railway costs by closing the offices and moving the affected staff on to station concourses. The devolved governments in Scotland and Wales have distanced themselves from the DfT’s plans, and are not proposing office closures on their networks.

Critics, including the RMT, have argued that no consultation would be needed to make staff outside the ticket offices redundant at a future date, and the union is predicting that thousands of jobs would be at risk.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘Around 750,000 passengers have responded to the consultation, making it the biggest ever response to a public consultation with 98 per cent of passengers who have responded opposing the closures.

‘We know that watchdogs, rail companies and government have had behind closed doors discussions in recent weeks.

‘It would be a great betrayal of passengers if the response to such widespread opposition to the closures was a stitch up which still paves the way for ticket office closures and the loss of potentially thousands of railway station jobs.

‘The passenger watchdogs and ultimately the government must listen to rail passengers and abandon the ticket office closure programme, ensuring that there will be no cuts to our station staff who are so vital for passenger advice, accessibility and safety.’

source= http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2023/10/30-rmt-warns-against-betrayal-of.html