North Staffs Green Party has given it support to a campaign against the closure of ticket offices at railway stations in Staffordshire and across the country.
In May the RMT trades union revealed plans by train operating companies supported by the government to for the mass closure of ticket offices across the rail network .RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said in a statement to the press that the “rail industry has made no secret of its goal to close all ticket offices”, adding that these plans would lead to an “annihilation of ticket offices across the network”.
Green Party activists joined members of North Staffs Pensioners Convention in a protest held outside Stoke-on-Trent railway station on 9th August.
The convention, which was established in 1991, aims to be a ‘powerful, independent champion of older people’s rights in the community’ and has close links with other local campaign groups.
Mick Lynch said that ticket office staff are vital to both passenger experience and safety on the rail network and that the RMT would “use all means at our disposal” to defend their jobs.
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said “ticket offices continue to have an important role to play and it is dangerously short sighted for the government and rail operators to think closing them is a good idea”.
Cliff Hathaway, vice chair of the Pensioners Convention said the protest was a way of “making heard” the voice of older people” on an issue that will impact massively on their lives.
Adding that “many of our members travel by rail to visit friends and family and may struggle to do so if they have to buy tickets online”.
These concerns were shared by members of the public using the station, one of whom said that “modernization is all well and good, when it works”, but was worried about being stranded if the automated ticket machines were not working.
Other passengers spoke about automated ticket machines only showing one ticket price and that this was seldom the cheapest one available.
Concerns were also expressed that the removal of station staff would make it harder for people with disabilities to travel by rail, and that people with limited literacy would struggle with booking tickets online.
Andy Day, a leading member of the Pensioners Convention said that public support for the protest had been “tremendous”, adding that “not everybody has a smartphone”, making it vital that ticket offices stayed open.