TSSA urges public smash half million mark in ticket office consultation

Rail union TSSA is calling on the public to smash the half million mark in the consultation on the proposals to close almost every ticket office in England after it was revealed that record breaking numbers have already taken part. 

On July 26th when the consultation was originally due to close, before being extended to September 1st, Transport Focus announced that 170,000 people had responded but the organisation has now confirmed that this number has already shot through the 315,000 mark.

Transport Focus has told TSSA that it is dealing with an unprecedented response, by post, email and via the online form. 

TSSA members and activists are continuing to engage with rail users at stations up and down the country and have received an overwhelmingly positive response from passengers who want their ticket offices to remain open. 

The union’s Interim General Secretary, Peter Pendle, has called on members of the public to make their views clear by taking part in the consultation in the weeks before 1 September. 

Pendle said “These are huge numbers showing the public is fully behind us and utterly determined to keep ticket offices open. We are calling now for further support to break the half million mark of respondents. 

“The government’s cruel and unnecessary plans to close ticket offices across England are being voted down and Ministers should scrap the whole idea right now. 

“Until that happens we will continue to engage with local communities, making our case that closing ticket offices will be disastrous for rail users, that this will result in job losses for our members and will restrict accessibility for vulnerable passengers. 

“The consultation is now open until 1 September, and we encourage everyone who has not yet done so to take part and make it clear that the proposals to close ticket offices are not acceptable.”