Rail ticket office closure safety fears

The TSSA rail union has raised serious safety concerns for staff if the government goes ahead with its widely opposed plans to close most ticket offices in England. The intervention followed reports of an attempted assault at a London train station when an intoxicated male attempted to spit at ticket office staff. The incident is a worrying echo of the attack at Victoria station on TSSA member Belly Mujinga, one of the first front-line workers to die of coronavirus, said the union. TSSA president Melissa Heywood said closing ticket offices increases the likelihood of station staff facing similar incidents of abuse.

RMT rail union general secretary Mick Lynch pointed to the unprecedented level of responses to consultations on the proposals, showing “the strength of feeling among the public against the dehumanisation of the rail network.

“We hope that the watchdogs will reflect on the huge opposition to this monumental act of social vandalism and defend a universal public service which should be available to all,” he added. “The drive to close ticket offices in the name of profits is clearly a political decision of this out of touch Tory government and it must be stopped.”