Protest takes place in Penzance against rail ticket office closures
Over a hundred people gathered yesterday (Tuesday 11 July)
Over a hundred people gathered at Penzance rail station yesterday (Tuesday 11 July) to demonstrate against proposals to close ticket offices.
It's after plans were announced to close hundreds of station ticket offices across England over the next three years, subject to consultation.
Under the proposals, it would see ticket office staff work on platforms and concourses. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) say the changes would bring staff closer to customers.
They add that on average, 12% of train tickets are bought from offices at stations, compared to 82% in the mid-90s.
A consultation is currently underway to collect passengers' views, which runs until Wednesday 26 July.
It comes as the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) are planning a national day of action tomorrow (Thursday 13 July).
Former Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives and parliamentary campaigner, Andrew George, says "people need people, not AI bot-managed systems":
"Managers seem to deliberately design ambiguity and customer frustration into their systems, fail to consider the disabled, elderly, those unused to IT systems, nor consider what would happen when their systems fail, experience power failure or are hacked.
"Perhaps they'll do what other service providers do these days and offer a set of inappropriate FAQ backup answers, which are irrelevant to the problems people encounter. And of course they won't advise on the most cost-effective and efficient way to get from A to B, as ticket office staff do now."
The RMT is taking strike action on July 20, 22 and 29 over the closures, as well as pay and conditions.
General secretary Mick Lynch said: "Our union is taking our campaign to save ticket offices out into every town, city and village in this country.
"The recent announcements of ticket office closures is a fig-leaf for the wholescale de-staffing of stations, including safety critical train dispatch, safety critical train despatch staff, passenger assistance and other non-ticket office customer service workers.
"Ticket office closures under Schedule 17 means there will be no regulations on staffing levels at stations whatsoever.
"Train operators will then be free to staff or de-staff any station to whatever level they choose.
"Our union and the travelling public do not want a de-humanised railway that will be a rife with crime and anti-social behaviour, inaccessible to the most vulnerable.
"We will fight these plans all the way and need the public's support in joining our campaign and taking part in the consultation."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "These industry-led consultations are about enhancing the role of station workers and getting staff out from behind ticket office screens and into more active, customer-facing roles that will allow them to better support all passengers.
"This is not about cutting jobs - no station which is currently staffed will be unstaffed as a result of these proposed reforms.
"We have been consistently honest about the need for our railways to modernise if they are going to survive. Reviewing the role of ticket offices - with the least busy selling only one ticket an hour - is a crucial part of this."