Charities say closing ticket offices would "isolate" disabled passengers
Rail passengers besieged by strikes were offered a glimmer of hope this week after the RMT union confirmed it was reviewing a fresh offer from the Rail Delivery Group.
But an important clause could delay any resolution: while train operators are prepared to offer workers a 9% pay rise over the next two years, the proposals on pay and job security are directly conditional on cost savings and alterations to contractual terms, entitlements, and working practices.
A crucial condition within the proposal would see all station ticket offices closed or “re-purposed" following a statutory public consultation process - a clause the RMT rail union says it categorically cannot support.
While the Department for Transport maintain that passenger safety was "a top priority", many charities are warning that plans to reduce railway staffing would isolate disabled passengers.
The new proposals could impact passengers like Sarah Leadbetter, a visually impaired person with a guide dog who cannot travel without the help of station staff.
Her local station in Narborough, Leicestershire, provides a manned ticket office until 1pm every afternoon. It allows her to purchase tickets, access information and secure passenger assistance, which means the next station will be told to help her from the train.
"If all that goes, I will not be able to travel," she said.
Six years ago, Sarah, unable to access assistance on the platform, slipped and fell underneath a stationary train. The incident means she needs a ramp - a service that could not be provided if all station staff were to be reduced.
Disability campaigner Rachel Charlton-Dailey said the plans were just another way disabled people were being excluded from society.
"Closing ticket offices and getting rid of station staff will make it impossible for many disabled people to travel as they rely on staff to help them around the station and get them on and off trains," she said.
"It's cutting costs at the risk of people's lives who won't be able to travel safely, is that what they're willing to do to save a few quid?"
The Rail Delivery Group, who has added the clause into current negotiations with the RMT rail union, said no decisions have yet been taken on the future of individual ticket offices, and that its
offer is intended to create a railway that meets the changing needs of all their customers, including those with additional needs when travelling.
A spokesman told PoliticsJOE that station staff "will be trained and supported to undertake these new multi-skilled roles" and that "the repurposing of ticket offices can therefore be a positive for customers and staff."
However, an internal survey conducted by the RMT union in November 2022 found that the majority of ticket office workers disagreed with government statements that closures would help get "staff from behind glass counters".
Instead, 97% of those surveyed said the plans would lead to less staffing at stations, with 80% reporting that their company had already reduced staff within the last year.
Workers said they thought that plans to close ticket offices and make passengers use online ticketing or Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) would worsen disabled and elderly people’s access to the railway.
Sarah is equally doubtful that more staff will be available on the platform and believes that while "technology is wonderful, a lot of people can't use smartphones and we need to speak to people and get assistance in order to travel."
She said "if all that goes, a lot of people will be isolated and will have their independence taken away. It's disgusting."
Earlier this month, members of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK handed in a petition to prime minister Rishi Sunak, urging him to scrap the Department for Transport's “cruel” plan to remove all guards from train stations.
The group, backed by 126 organisations including the RMT rail union, is calling for guards to be on all trains, for ticket offices to be left open and for longer and for all stations to be staffed.
Unions have said this new clause to cut ticket staff at stations is part of a wider plan to reduce costs for operators across the network and in line with the railway's progression toward automation.
They said plans to cut staff available on the network were "inherently unsafe," particularly on rural and long-distance services, and added it made it impossible for disabled travellers to use the network.
Concerns over passenger-safety led to a similar cost-cutting measure: a condition to introduce "driver only operations" (DOO), which would see plans to see trains operating without a guard being dropped.
Speaking to the Transport Select Committee earlier this month, ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan explained that DOO had been "delivered at a time when we had three-car trains and you could drop the window either side and see back along the length of the train."
Whelan added: "It wasn’t designed for twelve or thirteen car trains with 1300 people on, and one body to protect them."
He was backed by RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, who told MPs that talks to settle the long and bitter rail disputes could not continue if “driver-only operation” was on the agenda.
"It will never happen while I am general secretary," he said. "It will never happen as long as the RMT exists.”
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For disabled passengers, news that their ability to access the rail network is being used akin to a "bargaining chip" with unions in negotiations has not come easy.
Sarah Gayton, Street Access Campaign Coordinator at the NFBUK, said it was called discrimination and "it had to stop."
She said the reforms "are not modernisation" but would "strip away the very staff needed to ensure safety and accessibility for anyone needing assistance to travel by train."
The RMT Union is currently considering the new package offered by the Rail Delivery Group.
In a statement, the general secretary Mick Lynch said: "The National Executive Committee will be considering this matter and has made no decision on the proposals nor any of the elements within them.
"We will give an update on our next steps in due course."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "The safety and security of all rail passengers will always be top priority on our railways.
“Together with industry we want to improve and modernise the experience for passengers by moving staff out from behind the glass of ticket offices and onto stations to provide more face-to-face help and assistance.”
