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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2016 :: RMTnews
7
P
lans to axe and downgrade
81 rail station ticket office
across the Thameslink, Southern
and Great Northern franchise
are in disarray, with the public
consultation delayed, as
pressure from the union over
the threat to services, jobs and
safety has hit home.
When RMT saw leaked plans
earlier this month the union
launched an immediate
campaign to defend jobs and
services at the stations being set
up to lose their ticket offices.
RMT has learnt that the
public consultation on the plans
has now been delayed, although
not scrapped, as the company
have encountered a groundswell
of public anger from the
Midlands down to the South
Coast.
RMT has made it clear that
the campaign will be stepped up
as Govia Thameslink regroup
and redraw the consultation
timetable.
A postcard campaign is ready
to roll urging the public to
engage in the pending
consultation and asking them to
apply pressure to local
politicians across the routes
affected.
There are three categories of
stations in the closure
programme, the first wave,
which includes stations like
Tooting, Circklewood,
Streatham, Alexandra Palace,
Selhurst and Wandsworth
Common are to close
immediately.
A second wave will close
shortly after once passengers
have been “re-educated”
sufficiently into using ticket
machines and includes Balham,
Loughborough Junction,
Reigate, Shoreham, Sutton, City
Thameslink and Falmer.
A third wave, which will
close outside of peak hours
when a longer period of “re-
education” has been undertaken,
with the threat of eventual total
closure, sets up services at
stations including Epsom,
Leatherhead, Eastbourne, Lewes,
Horsham, Hove, Hitchin, Kings
Lynn, Hatfield and Potters Bar.
RMT general secretary Mick
Cash said that the TOC’s were
looking to sacrifice, jobs,
services and safety in the drive
to line their own pockets at the
passengers’ expense.
“The consultation timetable is
now in disarray as the plans
have sparked a storm of public
outrage and the union will step
up the fight as the company
now regroup.
“We have no intention of
allowing these plans to be
bulldozed through and Govia
should be forced to pull the
proposals in their entirety.
“These plans, driven by the
desire to de-staff our railways in
the quest for profit, across rail
franchises that are already seen
as the basket-cases of Britain’s
privatised railway network, can
be stopped.
Govia is preparing to milk
these routes for every single
penny that they can extract
regardless of what the travelling
public think of them.
“Ultimately these essential
rail services should be taken
into public ownership before
these latest profit-driven cuts
are allowed to rip through these
81 stations from North to South.
“It is no coincidence that this
threat comes as Southern are
already gearing up to axe
guards from their services in yet
another lethal gamble with
safety-critical jobs on some of
Britain’s most dangerously
overcrowded trains and
platforms.
“RMT will be stepping up the
campaign of opposition to these
delayed and discredited plans
and we will be working with the
travelling public to stop them in
their tracks,” he said.
RMT RESISTS TICKET
OFFICE “CARNAGE” PLAN