Via the Londonist I see that Boris has reversed a decision to close 40 Tube ticket offices. The closure was announced last year, with the TfL citing their redundance after the success of the Oyster smart card, but was followed by complaints from passenger groups and trade unions.
Gerry Doherty, leader of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, has described the reversal as a ‘victory for common sense‘ (a rather tedious statement but I agree nonetheless).
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Up to a point - the original idea had a certain amount of merit in that it was apparently a reassignment rather than closure. I’ve no objection to reassigning underworked ticket office staff to, say, platform duties, since the latter are likely to be more useful to the travelling public.
Still, it’s nice to see Red Boris and the unions singing off the same hymnsheet. First he’s applauding nationalisation, now he’s backing overmanning and on Friday we’ll have some state-sponsored bespoke transport vehicle procurement. It’s like the Seventies never ended round here.
I’m not so sure this is necessarily a victory for common sense. It was always my understanding that the plan was to close a few barely used ticket offices in order to move their staff out from behind the glass and into the main station areas, where they could provide a more visible and accessible presence to assist with security and passenger enquiries and problems.
The bulk of the campaign against these stated, or at least implied (as in the Boris quotes in the Stop Boris blog post I linked to above), that the closure of the ticket offices would result in a complete lack of staff on the stations.
Unlike the privatised National Rail stations those of us in Tube-free areas have to endure, I understand that all TfL stations (except DLR) are staffed at all times when they’re open (still no-one has corrected me on this and I’ve said it in a number of places, so I assume my recollection is accurate!). (At my local National Rail station it’s occasionally not even staffed at peak times, but it’s certainly never, ever staffed by 9pm.)
So the plan to shut the Tube ticket offices would have had no impact on the security of the stations in question - or more likely a positive impact, since the staff would be patrolling the stations rather than cooped up in a booth.
I believe that decision caused consternation among the unions because it would increase the pressure upon isolated staff.
At the time, Bob Crow said: “”These are straightforward cuts and they affect every Tube worker because they will lead to more ticket disputes, more assaults on staff, more stress, and more of our members working alone.”
Boris doing something Crow wants? That’ll stick in both their throats…
Shorter Bob Crow: ’some of my members might have to work a bit harder and meet more members of the public’. It’s his job to represent his members, not to run the Underground (which isn’t to say he should be ignored, as Boris is apparently doing, just not obeyed without question). The answer to isolated staff is more staff, of course.
I posted on uk.transport.london earlier with the local experience here (Chiswick Park), which is that you walk through the spacious, multi-exited station hall, on a busy road junction, past the ticket office complete with man who has a view of one corner of the hall and the narrow barrier line, and then climb a long staircase to a bleak concrete platform with one exit. If you get trapped with someone unpleasant between you and the steps you can either jump thirty feet to the ground below or run across four electrified railway lines. Or wait up to ten minutes for a train, of course.
Chiswick Park is one of the stations ’saved’ from staff cuts, apparently. Not sure how this helps the above situation, but I’ll let you know. The reason it’s bleak, incidentally, is that Metronet haven’t finished refurbishing it yet (hoardings and storage have been up all over the place for months), and it’s a right sorry mess.
On the staffing note, Chiswick mainline station (SWT) isn’t staffed outside morning peak hours, I think, but on the other hand one of the big improvements for London Overground was more station staff - I remember alighting at Haringay Green Lanes not long ago and finding two platform staff plus two guys on the train not including the driver. According to the latest TfL minutes the ticketless travel problem on LO has been sharply reduced, and ridership is up 29%, which is partly Oyster and partly visible platform staff.
I think Tube stations are unmanned very late in the evening, certainly Turnham Green barriers are left open in the evenings, I got a £4 unresolved journey coming back from the LC last tube booze party because I sailed merrily through them without touching out. Bah.
“The answer to isolated staff is more staff, of course.”
I assumed that the redistribution of staff was partly motivated by the desire not to hire new employees.
“According to the latest TfL minutes the ticketless travel problem on LO has been sharply reduced, and ridership is up 29%, which is partly Oyster and partly visible platform staff.”
Ah, now that is interesting. Where do you find the minutes?
“I got a £4 unresolved journey coming back from the LC last tube booze party because I sailed merrily through them without touching out. Bah.”
Heh, write anything too incisive now and they’ll be inspired to track you down
Unregistered Oyster
I generally get notice of new board minutes through London Connections (http://londonconnections.blogspot.com/). They do a pretty comprehensive summary of the main bits. We should probably put it on the sidebar, in fact.
Done und done.