The Mayor of London’s proposal to close all London Underground ticket offices and cut
up to 1,000 tube staff is apparently supported by 82 per cent of Londoners, according
to a poll commissioned by TfL.
However the question they ask in their poll doesn’t mention either the ticket office
closures, or cutting a thousand staff, but TfL are now claiming public endorsement for
the cuts. Polls commissioned by the unions also show overwhelming opposition from
passengers to these cuts.
Closing ticket offices which are only used by 3 per cent of people making journeys
does not sound much of a problem, except when you translate that into over a 100,000
people a day who are queuing up to sort out the issues which the machines can’t help
them with.
I can see some merit to the argument that we utilize new technology to make staff
more accessible, but these plans combine the closures with a huge reduction in staffing.
Fewer staff will be around and when they are wandering about, we may, or may not, be
lucky enough to bump into them. Ticket offices in most stations provide a reassuring
focus point where you know you can find someone.
The presence of a staffed office provides an invaluable source of advice and
assistance to passengers, way beyond the function of merely selling tickets. Get rid of
a 1000 staff and you lose that reassuring presence which helps passengers feel safer,
especially if travelling after dark.
Crime and abuse sadly occur in society and tube stations are no exception. In a recent
survey of disabled travellers “enhancing personal security and safety” was ranked
consistently as the most important benefit that staff provide to disabled passengers.
CCTV cameras can never replace staff in making passengers feel safe waiting on a
dark platform at night.
As we have tragically seen in recent years, emergencies do happen on our transport
network and deleting staff posts as the number of passengers flowing through stations
increases is irresponsible and could lead to injury or loss of life on the expanding tube
network.
This Mayor – Boris Johnson – presided over annual fare hikes above the rate of
inflation every year between 2008 and 2013. During this time, the real average increase
in TfL fares was 11 per cent, hitting Londoners’ pockets over and over again.
Meanwhile, he throws away vast sums of public money on a succession of vanity projects
including his New Bus and his cable car. While the Mayor wants to shed staff from tube
stations to save money, the additional cost for the extra staff on the back of the 600 Boris
Buses is an estimated £30m a year.
With record numbers using the tube and a massive predicted increase in passenger
numbers these cuts to staffing are unnecessary, unsafe and unworkable.
He has slashed away at our public services. Earlier this month, 10 of London’s oldest fire
stations closed their doors for the last time, 14 fire engines were withdrawn and 552
firefighter jobs were axed – all victims of this Mayor’s decision to cut council tax for the
average family by 7p per week to make a political point, rather than safeguard our
communities.
He has also presided over police front counter closures and is pushing for City Hall
security services to be outsourced too.
Tube workers have been rightly praised, as heroes during the terrorist attacks, for
making the Olympics a success and for keeping London moving. They now deserve
our full support in their fight for a safe, properly staff tube.
Industrial action is a last resort and no one wants strikes, least of all tube workers who
lose pay. But passengers face disruption and a worse service for years to come if
these cuts take place.
This Mayor opposed the closure of 40 ticket offices by his predecessor and entered
office in 2008 with a firm pledge to keep ticket offices open. He repeated his promise
again in 2010. Now we see the Mayor quietly ditching his commitments and hoping
nobody will notice.
I hope Londoners will see what he’s really doing and object to these dangerous cuts.
Written by Darren Johnson, Green Party London AM
