A new two-year study of ways of taking HS2 services to Leeds has been welcomed in the Midlands. The study will consider future rail capacity needs at Leeds and in West Yorkshire more generally, and will look at different options, taking possible disruption and value for money into account. Leeds had been intended to be the terminus of a new high speed line from the West Midlands, which would have served the Derby/Nottingham area and Sheffield en route, but this part of the scheme was later cut back to terminate at East Midlands Parkway. The government, which says the technical work will be done by Network Rail, supported by HS2 Ltd, warned that the preparation of an Outline Business Case did not mean that any of the options would go ahead. These options include running high speed services via Newark and the East Coast Main Line, routing Leeds services via Manchester, or completing the full Eastern Leg of HS2 through the East Midlands and South Yorkshire to Leeds as originally planned. The study will also examine the implications of using parts of the existing network. Rail minister Huw Merriman told MPs: ‘The proposals set out in the Integrated Rail Plan bring communities and labour markets together and will support growing our economy in towns and cities across the nation. ‘The work in the study will consider a range of options and take account of value for money, affordability, deliverability and timescales, economic development, disruption to passengers and local views and evidence. The study will be extensive and will take two years to complete. ‘As this work progresses, we intend to review the case for dropping certain options, taking account of evidence gathered, particularly on costs, affordability, benefits and value for money.’ Another development concerns the provision of a new station for Bradford, which had been dropped from the separate Integrated Rail Plan. Mr Merriman said the government was accepting a recommendation of the Transport Select Committee that ‘the government should reconsider the case for the development of a new station in Bradford. The development of the St James’s Market station would not only enhance rail connectivity in the North, allowing further investment in the city, but also provide further opportunities for rail development in Bradford after the “core pipeline” of IRP upgrades take place.’ Midlands Connect’s chief executive Maria Machancoses said: ‘We welcome the release of the much awaited terms of reference for the HS2 review up to Leeds. ‘Midlands Connect remains unanimous on the enormous economic, social and environmental benefits associated with getting HS2 connections from the Midlands to the North. ‘We will now seek to be actively involved in the next stages of development ensuring as part of the study, consideration is given to our proposals for improved services from the East Midlands to Leeds and beyond.’

The general secretary of the drivers’ union ASLEF has launched a broadside against the government and train operators, accusing them of not caring about railway passengers and staff. His comments came as he announced another week-long overtime ban in England between 31 July and 5 August. ASLEF has already started a similar ban today, which will continue until Saturday. It is the third of its kind, because ASLEF had already withdrawn ‘non-contractual’ overtime from 15 to 20 May, and also earlier this month for six days from 3 July. The operators affected are Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, South Western Railway and Island Line, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘We don’t want to take this action. We don’t want people to be inconvenienced. But the blame lies with the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, which refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12 per cent. ‘The proposal they made on Wednesday 26 April – of 4 per cent with a further rise dependent, in a naked land grab on drivers giving up terms and conditions for which we have fought and negotiated for years – was not designed to be accepted. ‘We have not heard a word from the employers since then – not a meeting, not a phone call, not a text message, nor an email – for the last twelve weeks, and we haven’t sat down with the government since 6 January. That shows how little the companies and the government care about passengers and staff. They appear content to let this drift on and on. ‘In contrast, we want a fair resolution. That’s why we are taking this action, to try to bring things to a head. Then I can concentrate on my day job working with others in the industry to rebuild Britain’s railways for passengers, for business, and for this country.’ Meanwhile, the RMT is set to stage 24-hour National Rail walkouts on 20, 22 and 29 July, and also a ‘week of action’ on London Underground between 23 and 28 July. The Rail Delivery Group said: ‘While we are doing all we can to keep trains running, unfortunately there will be reduced services between Monday 17 July and Saturday 29 July, so our advice is to check before you travel.’

The ticket office saga is rumbling on. More objections are being made publicly. One city Mayor has even questioned whether the plan by the Department for Transport to close nearly all station ticket offices in England is actually legal. Certainly the train operators, who have been given the unenviable task of starting the consultation process which is required by law, have made a dog’s breakfast of explaining what is happening, with some of them giving the plans little publicity. At least one of these is state-owned LNER, so this isn’t a case of the private sector trying to resist governmental pressures. It has become all too clear that the DfT is using the present structure of the passenger railway to offload as much as the blame as possible on to the operators, whether they are in the public or private sectors (writes Sim Harris). One example of the DfT’s approach was provided in the Commons on 10 July, although not in connection with ticket offices, when rail minister Huw Merriman was answering three questions from Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum about the free travel concessions available to senior managers and board members at LNER, Northern and Southeastern. Mr Merriman reached for his copy of DfT Myths and Legends (presumably), and in all seriousness offered this remarkable answer (three times): ‘The renumeration packages between the organisation and Board members or Directors are a matter for the individual companies. They are all independent third parties.’ Really, minister? In one case the question had referred not to the operator’s directors, but to those on the board of OLR DfT Holdings Ltd, which describes itself as having been ‘established by the Department for Transport and is the public sector-owning group responsible for three train operating companies … DOHL fulfils the Secretary of State for Transport’s requirements under Section 30 of the Railways Act …’ And yet, when it seems prudent to withdraw into the ministerial bunker, even the DfT’s own company is an ‘independent third party’. That is the kind of logical thinking which has illuminated the official stance on ticket office closures, and it may account for at least part of the dog’s breakfast. When the proposals are held up to the light, they can be seen to be suspiciously threadbare. For example the busiest and second busiest stations on National Rail are London Waterloo (41,426,042 entrances and exits in 2021-22, according to the ORR) and London Victoria (36,776,338). However, the modest station at Runcorn East, which ranks at number 1,425 in the busiest stations league (120,012 entrances and exits), is keeping its ticket office, although the nearby station of Runcorn on the West Coast Main Line (four times as busy, with 486,270) is not. The explanation is that Runcorn (WCML) is run by Avanti West Coast, which is closing all its offices, including London Euston (23,097,606), but Runcorn East is under the control of Transport for Wales, which is having nothing to do with any of this closures business. But even when stations are under the management of a DfT operator, there are no guarantees. Stations like London Waterloo (South Western Railway) and London Paddington (Great Western Railway, 23,870,510) are losing their ticket windows, but the windows at London Fenchurch Street (c2c, 7,795,346) are to stay. In Manchester, where Piccadilly (Avanti West Coast,19,581,442 and the tenth busiest station in Britain) will have to manage without ticket windows, suburban Glossop, which is run more benevolently by Northern (588,956 entrances and exits) will see no change, and its office will continue. Northern is closing 131 ticket offices but keeping 18, including Glossop. In Scotland, the pantomime is much the same. Glasgow Central (Avanti West Coast, 15,322,350) will have its ticket windows closed, but Glasgow Queen Street (ScotRail, 8,467,718) will carry on. In spite of the axe falling on Glasgow Central, Edinburgh (LNER, 13,617,536) will also keep its ticket office, because LNER is maintaining ticket offices at its six busiest stations along the East Coast Main Line, including London King’s Cross (20,476,492). The core excuse for the closures is that only about 12 per cent of passengers are now using ticket offices. Taking that figure as an average, that means the office at London Waterloo is still being used by some five million passengers a year, or nearly 14,000 people a day. There are going to be some big queues for the ticket machines.

Controversial regulations which would have allowed employers in the rail industry to use agency staff during strikes have been banned by the High Court. The rules were promoted last summer by Kwasi Kwarteng, who had been business secretary since January 2021 in Boris Johnson’s government. He said the reform would give businesses ‘freedom to access fully skilled staff at speed’ and was backed by the transport secretary Grant Shapps, who described the reform as ‘vital’. Unions had argued against using temporary staff, partly because such a move amounted to ‘strike-breaking’ and also because many railway jobs need safety-critical skills. The judge, Mr Justice Linden, said Mr Kwarteng had shown little interest in gathering evidence or any consultation, and that the government’s approach was ’so unfair as to be unlawful and, indeed, irrational’. Mr Kwarteng had committed himself to changing the regulations even though ’the advice to him was that it would be of negligible short-term benefit and probably be counterproductive’, the judge continued. The unions have welcomed yesterday’s judgment. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan told the Guardian that the union was ‘proud to have stood with other unions to challenge these changes legally, and we will continue to do so in all those other areas, including minimum service levels, to ensure a level playing field for workers here in the UK’. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘The government’s decision to allow employers to recruit agency workers to undermine legal strike action was a cynical move to back their friends in business and weaken workers’ legal rights to withdraw their labour.’ The Department for Business and Trade responded: ‘We are disappointed with the High Court’s decision as we believed the decision to repeal the ban on agency workers covering strikes complied with our legal obligations. ‘The ability to strike is important, but we maintain there needs to be a reasonable balance between this and the rights of businesses and the public. We will consider the judgment and next steps carefully.’

The chief executive of HS2 Ltd Mark Thurston has announced that he will leaving the company in the autumn, after leading the company since March 2017. He has decided to stand down when the controversial project to build a high speed terminus at London Euston has been put on hold for at least two years, while the costs are reviewed. He also seen the network cut back from Leeds and Sheffield to East Midlands Parkway. He said: ‘Leading this organisation has been the highlight of my career and a privilege from the first day – the programme has come such a long way and I want to thank everyone who has worked on the project during my time.   ‘The next 18 to 24 months will see the project move into an exciting new stage. I have agreed with the Board that someone else should lead the organisation and programme through what will be another defining period for HS2.’ Mark Thurston joined the company shortly after the Act of Parliament authorising Phase 1 between London and Birmingham had received Royal Assent. Transport secretary Mark Harper said: ‘I’d like to thank Mark Thurston for his work over the last six years progressing Britain’s most transformative rail project. As well as successfully overseeing the start of construction, he has ensured HS2 has created tens of thousands of skilled jobs and apprenticeships across the country. ‘As HS2 enters its next phase, the Government remains committed to unlocking all the benefits of this flagship infrastructure scheme – increasing rail capacity, connecting communities and growing the economy.’ HS2 chairman Sir Jon Thompson will become executive chairman for a time from October.

The RMT union is staging protests outside many stations to oppose the proposed closure of hundreds of ticket offices. A consultation is under way over the proposals, which will affect most staffed stations in England and also in Scotland at Glasgow Central, because it is run by the English contractor Avanti West Coast. Other stations in Scotland and Wales are not included in the plans, and five stations in England which are run by Transport for Wales are also unaffected. Transport for Wales said: ‘We do not have any plans to reduce the number of staff at our stations and we will continue to work in a social partnership with our Trade Unions as part of regular dialogue on how we deliver the best possible service to meet the needs of our customers.’ The wave of protest in England is growing, and the RMT started to demonstrate outside National Rail stations last night, at Manchester Piccadilly, Salford Central and Penzance. There will be one demonstration outside Plymouth station later today, but the majority of RMT protests are set to be staged tomorrow at up to 24 stations between Glasgow Central and Brighton, including a national demonstration at London King’s Cross. Protestors are also planning to gather outside the London headquarters of FirstGroup in Eastbourne Terrace, outside Paddington station. More protests are set to follow on Friday and Saturday, and into next week. 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 destaffing 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 destaff any station to whatever level they choose. ‘Our union and the travelling public do not want a dehumanised 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.’ The demonstrations come as the RMT prepares to stage three national strikes at most English operators on 20, 22 and 29 July. The union has also just announced that its revenue protection members on London Overground have voted to strike in a dispute with Overground operator Arriva Rail London over a ‘collective grievance into bullying’. The Rail Delivery Group has justified the closures by pointing out that only about 12 per cent of tickets are still bought from station offices, saying that the displaced staff will be moved to help passengers on concourses instead. Which ticket offices might stay open? Avanti West Coast said its offices at some larger stations would be kept ‘short-term’ for passengers with complicated ticket queries which cannot be resolved on line or at a ticket machine. It said these stations are those managed by Network Rail at London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central, where AWC runs the ticket offices, and also Preston and Carlisle. c2c All 25 offices are ‘at risk of closure’ except London Fenchurch Street, Benfleet, Basildon, Grays and Southend Central. These offices continue, but opening hours will change. Chiltern Railways plans to close all its ticket offices.  East Midlands Railway will close its offices at Alfreton, Beeston, Boston, Burton-on-Trent, Chesterfield, Corby, East Midlands Parkway, Hinckley, Kettering, Kidsgrove, Long Eaton, Loughborough, Mansfield, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Narborough, Newark Castle, Oakham, Skegness, Sleaford, Spalding, Stamford (Lincs) and Wellingborough. Ticket offices will continue to be provided at Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, London St Pancras International, Nottingham and Sheffield. Govia Thameslink Railway (Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink) plans to close all ticket offices apart from Gatwick Airport. Greater Anglia plans to open Customer Information Centres to replace ticket offices at London Liverpool Street, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted Airport and Cambridge. All other ticket offices will close, but of the remaining 47 stations run by GA, some would have changes to staffing hours. No presently staffed station will become unstaffed. Great Western Railway is proposing to close all its ticket offices by the end of next year, including London Paddington. It has already closed summer-only ticket windows at Looe, Newquay and St Ives. LNER said it proposed to maintain ticket offices at Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Peterborough and London King’s Cross, ‘which will continue to offer the same range of products and opening times’. Northern is proposing to close 131 ticket offices and change the opening hours at 18. It also operates a further 318 stations which do not have ticket offices. Stations which would retain ticket offices are Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool North, Bolton, Bradford Interchange, Glossop, Harrogate, Hartlepool, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria, Rochdale, St Helens Central, Salford Crescent, Skipton, Warrington Central and Wigan Wallgate. Exceptionally, Hartlepool is presently closed on Sundays, but would open under the new proposals. The opening hours at the other 17 offices will mostly be reduced.   Southeastern said it serves 180 stations, and runs 142 ticket offices. It is proposing to open Travel Centres at its 14 busiest stations (Ashford International, Bromley South, Canterbury West, Dartford, Dover Priory, Hastings, London Bridge, London Charing Cross, London St Pancras International, London Victoria, Margate, Rochester, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge). All other offices will close, but staff will return to 14 stations which are currently unstaffed because of vacancies. South Western Railway is planning to close all its ticket offices. TransPennine Express plans to close the ticket offices at 14 of the 16 staffed stations it operates. Ticket offices will remain open at Huddersfield and Manchester Airport. West Midlands Trains (London NorthWestern and West Midlands Railway) said ‘all ticket offices in their current form would close over the next three years’ but that it would introduce a number of ‘hub stations’ offering ‘enhanced retail facilities and customer support’. The ‘hubs’ are proposed at Birmingham Snow Hill, Milton Keynes Central, Northampton, Nuneaton, Sutton Coldfield, University, Walsall, Watford Junction, Wolverhampton and Worcester Foregate Street. Note: CrossCountry and the open access operators Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo.do not manage any stations.

Rail Partners, the lobby group representing privately-owned train operators, has called for the rail business to ‘put aside ideological battles of public versus private’ and concentrate on creating an ‘reinvigorated public-private partnership to get Britain’s railways back on the track to growth’. Franchising ended officially in 2020, and all operators still in the private sector have limited contracts, which involve the government taking the commercial risk by collecting revenue and paying the costs, plus management fees. Four operators in England, two in Scotland and one in Wales have been renationalised, starting with LNER in 2018, following the failure of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise. The most recent return to state control was that of Caledonian Sleeper, which was taken over by a Scottish Government-owned company from Serco on 25 June this year. Although some National Rail Contracts in private hands have been extended recently, others are said to be potential candidates for renationalisation. Unions and some politicians say the transition should continue, with the aim of completely renationalising the passenger railway. Rail Partners has published a new report prepared by Oxera, entitled ‘Track to growth: creating a dynamic railway for passengers and the economy’. Rail Partners says it ‘sets out the significant and complex challenges currently facing the railway, including the blurring of responsibilities and accountabilities between different parts of the system, prescriptive and no-longer-fit-for-purpose contracts, an out-dated fares system, changed travel patterns resulting in millions of pounds lost in revenue, and drawn-out industrial action’. It adds that ‘public control is far greater today than under British Rail, with the government micro-managing the smallest of commercial decisions. Reform has been needed for several years and the pandemic compounded the problem and accelerated the need for drastic change.’ It also claims that privatisation from 1996 halted railway decline, and that ‘an operational deficit was closed, taxpayer subsidy reduced freeing up money for infrastructure, and ultimately, passengers returned in record numbers. Although franchising in its latter days needed reform, harnessing train companies in the delivery of passenger services was transformative for customers and the railway.’ Rail Partners’ chief executive Andy Bagnall said: ‘Today’s report is about getting back on track to growth. What matters is what works for customers and the taxpayer, so we should put aside ideological debates. The evidence shows that a reinvigorated public-private partnership is the best way to revitalise the railway. ‘Train companies, domestically in the past and across the continent right now, have shown the skills needed to grow passenger numbers and reduce costs for the taxpayer. ‘If reform continues to stall, the railway faces stunted recovery from the pandemic and worst case, a permanently smaller network. But with the right reforms, the railway can return to growth and act as a catalyst for a stronger, greener economy. ‘This is one of the most wide-ranging studies on the emerging impacts of rail liberalisation in the EU to date. We can draw on the experience of managed competition across Europe to deliver benefits here in Britain. ‘The evidence from European railways clearly shows that, if we get reform right, and train companies are harnessed in the right way, competition will deliver significant benefits for the customer, and ultimately reduces subsidy, bringing public spending down.' The Labour Party committed itself to completing railway nationalisation in September last year. At the time, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘We welcome the Labour Party committing itself to public ownership of the railways. ‘Tackling the greed and inefficiency of the private sector in our railways and other public services should be a key priority for the next Labour government. And the trade union movement will be on hand to make sure these Labour values are delivered for working people.’ Meanwhile, the government has insisted that it is still intent on creating the new ‘guiding mind’, Great British Railways, as recommended in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail in 2021. This would award new ‘concession’ operating contracts, involving minimum commercial risks for operators but also allowing them very little commercial freedom. However, the government may not pass the necessary legislation this side of the General Election next year. Although Parliament’s agenda for the 2023-24 session has not yet been published, the government has said there may not be enough Parliamentary time to deal with an Act creating GBR.

  Almost 30 years ago, the railway was fragmented by privatisation. A nationalised operator (with several business sectors) was split into more than 100 separate organisations. Privatisation proved to be a mixed bag, and the ailing franchises were reconstructed under Emergency Measures Agreements in the spring of 2020, thanks to Covid, when the Department for Transport and the devolved governments shouldered the commercial risk. In return, they collect the revenue and meet the costs of the passenger railway. Franchises in England were officially abolished by the DfT in September 2020. (Caledonian Sleeper was still technically a franchise until it was renationalised by the Scottish Government last month). The Welsh Government had already assumed control of the former Wales & Borders franchise, while the Scottish Government now runs ScotRail. In England, there is a patchwork of private sector National Rail Contracts and Direct Awards, plus four renationalised operators. Never, perhaps, has the railway been so divided, at least in living memory. In the meantime, the DfT is determined to reduce the costs of running the passenger railway (after all, it does pay the bills), and so the axe is hovering over most ticket offices, which, we are told, are used by barely more than one passenger in ten these days. With all the passenger operators now effectively under government control, one way or the other, you might have expected Operation Ticket Office to have been launched consistently and logically. If so, you will have been disappointed. Although the consultation is nationwide within England, each operator has publicised it differently. Avanti West Coast (all ticket offices closing) and c2c (most offices closing) have conscientiously published copies of the consultation posters for each of their stations on their websites. GWR has provided a long document, with a page for each station which still has a ticket office. By the end of next year, GWR is proposing to close every one of them. Other operators have produced documents in various styles and formats, and confusion has abounded. Govia Thameslink Railway produced its own all-stations list, but at least one national newspaper, struggling to make sense of it all, labelled the complete GTR collection ‘Southern’, which was news for those of us who had never realised until now that the Southern network extends to Hitchin and Bedford. The same newspaper claimed that GWR was not closing any offices, heaven knows why. Perhaps it overlooked that company’s document, which gives almost exhaustive detail about the types of tickets sold at each station, and includes the ominous words ‘Ticket Office windows close’ near the bottom of every page. However, even getting that far can be a challenge in some cases. LNER probably takes the prize for pretending that nothing is happening, because there is no obvious link on its front page to anything about ticket offices closing. The details are hiding in a folder called ‘our-stations-are-changing’, but you have to search for it.  When you get to the detail LNER publishes its plans under the descriptive title ‘Evolving and enhancing our stations’. Quite so. c2c is also lacking a link on its front page, and you seem to be required to click on ‘Media enquiries’ and then ‘latest news’ before you find a news release headed ‘c2c calls for customer feedback on the future of station ticket offices’. Clear enough when you get there, but it is rather buried. At least others, like South Western Railway, provide a link on their front page. SWR’s is entitled: ‘Station Change Proposals: Modernising our retail offer’, which perhaps needs a little translation unless you have an NVQ in management speak. GWR prefers ‘Ticket office consultation: have your say on industry proposals’, which is still on the shy side, while Avanti West Coast breaks the news with: ‘Public consultation launched on the future of ticket retailing’. (That means selling tickets, everyone.) Southeastern has a large link on its front page, labelled ‘Ticket office consultation’. Again, you need to have read the backstory before that really makes sense. Greater Anglia gives prominence to ‘Consultation on proposed ticket office changes’, which gives the innocent passenger a bit more of a clue. TransPennine Express speaks of ‘Modernising customer service at stations: read our updates on the proposed changes to staffed ticket offices’, which might cause the same innocent passenger to wonder what an unstaffed ticket office would be like. (Shut, presumably.) West Midlands Railway doesn’t beat about the bush, with ‘Consultation announcement – Proposed changes to ticket offices’, while Govia Thameslink Railway goes further: ‘Find out about the proposal to move ticket office colleagues from behind ticket windows onto the station concourse and how to take part in the consultation,’ which nearly gives the whole game away. There are more questions to be asked, of course, such as why it should be that Runcorn East, on a local line, is to keep its ticket office, while the office at nearby Runcorn, on the West Coast Main Line, is closing. There are many more mysteries like this. London Paddington and London Euston are losing their ticket offices, but little London Fenchurch Street (by comparison) is not. A little unfairly, St Pancras International seems set to keep two (and that’s not counting Eurostar). So there’s another can of worms that might bear inspection, then, but it will have to wait until next Monday.

The RMT has warned that it will stage a ‘week of action’ on the London Underground from 23 to 28 July. Different grades and sections of the staff will strike during those six days, but details of the planned stoppages have not been released. The walkouts are part of the continuing dispute between the RMT and Transport for London over jobs, pensions and working conditions. The union said 600 jobs are at risk, and that ‘London Underground staff stand to be poorer in retirement if TfL's proposed changes go through’. It has also claimed that more stations may be unstaffed and that safety standards are set to be lowered. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘This week of action will shut down the London Underground and show just how important the work of our members is. Plans by TfL to cut 600 jobs and attack our members pensions are simply unacceptable. ‘We are aware that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has had the TfL budget cut. However, he needs to align himself with our union and his London Underground staff in pushing back against the Tory government, exposing their damaging agenda to a key part of London transport infrastructure.’ TfL chief operating officer Glynn Barton said: ‘There are no current proposals to change pension arrangements and, although we are discussing with union colleagues a range of proposals to improve how London Underground operates, no employee will lose their job or be asked to work additional hours.’

 A rail union leader has revealed that train operators have served the first legal warning of redundancies as part of the closures of most station ticket offices in England. The plans, unveiled yesterday, involve many former ticket office staff being given new responsibilities, which could involve working on station concourses to help passengers use ticket machines and answer their questions. Some operators, including Great Western Railway and South Western Railway, plan to close all their ticket offices. Others will provide Travel Centres (Southeastern) or Customer Information Centres (Greater Anglia) at the busiest stations. Most of the changes are expected to have happened by the end of next year. Speaking on BBC Radio Surrey this morning, TSSA interim general secretary Peter Pendle said he had received ‘half a dozen communications from the various train operating companies, South Western Trains and GWR included, both issuing Section 188 notices which is the notice you have to give as a first stage to consult on redundancies’. Railnews has invited the Rail Delivery Group to comment. Which ticket offices might stay open? Some operators have released details of their intentions. Avanti West Coast said its offices at some larger stations would be kept ‘short-term’ for passengers with complicated ticket queries which cannot be resolved on line or at a ticket machine. It said these stations are those managed by Network Rail at London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central, where AWC runs the ticket offices, and also Preston and Carlisle.  Greater Anglia plans to open Customer Information Centres at London Liverpool Street, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted Airport and Cambridge. Of the remaining 47 stations, some would have changes to staffing hours, but no presently staffed station will become unstaffed. Great Western Railway is proposing to close all its ticket offices by the end of next year, including London Paddington. It has already closed summer-only ticket windows at Looe, Newquay and St Ives. LNER said it proposed to maintain ticket offices at Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Peterborough and London King’s Cross, ‘which will continue to offer the same range of products and opening times’. Northern is proposing to close 131 ticket offices and change the opening hours at 18. It also operates a further 318 stations which do not have ticket offices. Stations which would retain ticket offices are Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool North, Bolton, Bradford Interchange, Glossop, Harrogate, Hartlepool, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria, Rochdale, St Helens Central, Salford Crescent, Skipton, Warrington Central and Wigan Wallgate. Exceptionally, Hartlepool is presently closed on Sundays, but would open under the new proposals. The opening hours at the other 17 offices will mostly be reduced.   Southeastern said it serves 180 stations, and runs 142 ticket offices. It is proposing to open Travel Centres at its 14 busiest stations. The other offices will close, but staff will return to 14 stations which are currently unstaffed because of vacancies. South Western Railway is planning to close all its ticket offices.  West Midlands Trains said ‘all ticket offices in their current form would close over the next three years’ but that it would introduce a number of ‘hub stations’ offering ‘enhanced retail facilities and customer support’. The ‘hubs’ are proposed at Birmingham Snow Hill, Milton Keynes Central, Northampton, Nuneaton, Sutton Coldfield, University, Walsall, Watford Junction, Wolverhampton and Worcester Foregate Street.