If you are an entrepreneur out on business this weekend – forget the train.
There will be more rail strikes across the UK this weekend in support of pay and the campaign to keep railway ticket offices open.
More than half a million put pen to paper.
More than 500,000 travellers wrote to the authorities in a last-ditch bid to keep the country’s 1,000 ticket offices open and save scores of jobs. The deadline for objections passed on the evening of September 1.
Many on the railway platforms of the UK complain that those without smartphones to buy tickets online could be left stranded by the closures.
“One last push.”
The unions called for one last push against the idea.
Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, said most drivers wanted the union to step up industrial action. This first strike in three months came after a fresh ballot. He described the ticket office closure plans as a “naive and dangerous decision” and accused the government and rail industry leaders of “blatant lying” in saying people would all be redeployed as front-facing staff: “The actual figures [show] these are job cuts. We’re going to have a railway where we were talking not long ago about increased sexual assaults and county lines [drug trafficking], made less safe for the travelling public, less safe for the people that work on the railway.”
But the railway companies argue that the cost-cutting measure will still leave staff on the stations to help people.
Support and reducing cost to the taxpayer.
The Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators, told the Guardian it was listening to feedback. Jacqueline Starr, its chief executive, said: “The taxpayer is continuing to subsidise the railway, and we believe that now is the right time to move staff to more flexible, engaging roles so our staff can better support customers face to face with a whole range of needs – from finding the right ticket, to navigating the station and getting support with accessibility needs, while reducing costs to taxpayers.”
