Changes to local stations:
Baker Street (Metropolitan) will only be open for 60 hours and 30 minutes a week (as opposed to 94 hours a week) 36% reduction
St John’s Wood will only be open for 67 hours and 15 minutes (as opposed to 97 hours and 30 minutes) 31% reduction
Warwick Avenue will only be open for 19 hours (as opposed to 90 hours) 79% reduction
Westbourne Park will only be open for 16 hours (as opposed to 69 hours and 30 minutes) 77% reduction
The changes come despite mayor Boris Johnson’s election promise to "defend local ticket offices" and "stop the planned ticket office closures". In his 2008 election manifesto, the mayor said he would ensure "there is always a manned ticket office at every station".
Across London opening hours are being cut by 30 per cent – or 5,290 hours a week.
Local Labour Assembly member Murad Qureshi said:
"The mayor was elected on a clear promise to keep ticket offices open yet here he is cutting far more than anything that was planned before. Passengers will feel less safe and more vulnerable in the daytime and late at night as a direct consequence of the mayor’s broken promises."
Transport for All, a charity who campaign on behalf of disabled passengers, have warned that the changes will make stations even less accessible.
Transport trade unions say the cuts will turn stations into a "criminal’s paradise", making them more dangerous and leaving passengers – especially female passengers – more vulnerable to crime and anti-social behaviour. The TSSA union recently pointed to an assault which allegedly took place on an unmanned station.
TfL announced last March that 450 ticket office jobs would be cut as a result of the proposed changes. Negotiations over the job losses are on-going and one of the unions involved has accused the mayor of "jumping the gun" by pressing ahead with the ticket office cuts while the dispute is unresolved.
Ends
Notes
Murad Qureshi is a London wide Labour Assembly member and a former Councillor in the City of Westminster.
Further information about Boris Johnson’s cuts to ticket office opening hours is available here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/16277.aspx
Boris Johnson’s manifesto promises on ticket office closures can be found on page two here
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2009/04/27/Transportmanifesto.pdf
For further information please contact Alison Marcroft on 0207 983 4363