TSSA rail union claims one in four ticket offices to close

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The Transport Salaried Staffs Association has said that a ‘hit list’ of 675 station ticket office closures has been drawn up for Ministers.

The claim comes from the ‘small print’ of the McNulty Report, and shows that one in four stations in England and Wales will lose their ticket offices if Transport Secretary Philip Hammond gives the green light to the report this Autumn.

London and the South East will be the hardest hit with 265 stations being left unmanned with no ticket offices, the union said.

And the North West will be the ‘second worst affected region with a further 114 stations losing their ticket offices’, mainly on Merseyside and in Greater Manchester.

Publishing the full list of planned closures, Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA, called on the Transport Secretary to reject the controversial cutbacks called for by Sir Roy McNulty in his report on cost savings in the industry.

“This is a double whammy for millions of passengers. Last month they were told that fares will rise by 25% over the next three years.

“And they are now set to lose one in four ticket offices. Not only are unstaffed stations less secure, tickets bought from machines are usually more expensive.

“Philip Hammond should come to the Dispatch Box in the next few days and give a clear undertaking that he is going to ditch these draconian cuts in services to passengers.”

The union is launching a ‘SOS-Save our Station ticket offices’ campaign which will tour the party conferences over the next four week urging MPs to save local ticket offices in their constituencies.

Mr Hammond welcomed the McNulty Report when it was published in May calling for £1 billion in savings to be made in the taxpayer funded industry.

His detailed response is expected next month when parliament resumes after the summer break.

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