North Staffs Green
Party has given it support to a campaign against the closure of ticket offices
at railway stations in Staffordshire and across the country.
In May the RMT trades
union revealed plans by train operating companies supported by the government
to for the mass closure of ticket offices across the rail network [1].
RMT general secretary
Mick Lynch said in a statement to the press that the “rail industry has made no
secret of its goal to close all ticket offices”, adding that these plans would
lead to an “annihilation of ticket offices across the network”.
Green Party activists
joined members of North Staffs Pensioners Convention in a protest held outside
Stoke-on-Trent railway station on 9th August.
The convention, which was
established in 1991, aims to be a ‘powerful, independent champion of older
people’s rights in the community’ and has close links with other local campaign
groups [2].
Mick Lynch said that
ticket office staff are vital to both passenger experience and safety on the
rail network and that the RMT would “use all means at our disposal” to defend
their jobs.
A spokesperson for
North Staffs Green Party said “ticket offices continue to have an important
role to play and it is dangerously short sighted for the government and rail
operators to think closing them is a good idea”.
Cliff Hathaway, vice
chair of the Pensioners Convention said the protest was a way of “making heard”
the voice of older people” on an issue that will impact massively on their
lives.
Adding that “many of
our members travel by rail to visit friends and family and may struggle to do
so if they have to buy tickets online”.
These concerns were
shared by members of the public using the station, one of whom said that
“modernization is all well and good, when it works”, but was worried about
being stranded if the automated ticket machines were not working.
Other passengers spoke
about automated ticket machines only showing one ticket price and that this was
seldom the cheapest one available.
Concerns were also
expressed that the removal of station staff would make it harder for people
with disabilities to travel by rail, and that people with limited literacy
would struggle with booking tickets online.
Andy Day, a leading
member of the Pensioners Convention said that public support for the protest
had been “tremendous”, adding that “not everybody has a smartphone”, making it
vital that ticket offices stay open.
The Pensioners
Convention are supporting a petition to Transport Secretary calling for an end
to plans to close ticket offices accessible at: https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/cut-their-profits-not-our-ticket-offices?fbclid=IwAR3eR8Z-OL3Y6H5WzpcMOuhIVNXf46TZ0zJUjHCe3boinU92GoXdvroeN0A
[1] https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-reveals-rail-industrys-plan-for-a-cull-of-ticket-offices/
[2] http://greypowernorthstaffs.org.uk/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment