Passengers on the troubled Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) face more disruption after a union said it will ballot station staff across the franchise for industrial action over the impact of ticket office reorganisation.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said GTR’s proposed reorganisation of station staff, which will see the creation of the new position of ‘station host’ and some ticket office closures, poses a ‘threat to jobs, pay and safety’.
The ticket office at Epsom Station, managed by Southern
It said it has rejected the latest proposals from the company ‘because they cut pay and will also result in a massive increase in lone working’.
The RMT said GTR's plans to close ticket offices, or cut them to morning peak only, at 83 stations in the South East ‘will result in a cut of at least 130 jobs’.
The rail operator said it was disappointed by the RMT ballot over what it called ‘plans to modernise the way it operates 83 of its busier stations on Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink for the benefit of passengers’.
It said its plans ‘will give passengers access to well-trained station hosts in the concourse, rather than in a ticket office, who will be available to help customers with all of their queries, providing information, offering assistance and helping sell tickets when needed, all at times of the day and days of the week when currently ticket offices are closed’.
The company added that the ballot comes as talks about proposed changes are ongoing and that it plans to introduce the changes via a pilot so as to monitor their impact.
GTR passenger service director Keith Jipps said: ‘The RMT’s threat of further industrial action is entirely unwarranted and clearly another bid by the union to disrupt passengers and GTR across as many parts of our franchise as possible. We have listened to passengers and modified our proposals, addressing the concerns of both London TravelWatch and Transport Focus.
He claimed the RMT ‘is not concerned with improving the experience for passengers and are dismissing significant improvements to the terms and conditions for staff’.
The GTR franchise includes Southern Railway, which this month cut 350 trains a day from its timetable to provide a ‘more predictable’ service, after months of delays and cancellations.
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