TSSA and Neil Bibby, campaign against ticket office cuts at Paisley Gilmour Street

The Scotsman

TSSA and Neil Bibby, campaign against ticket office cuts at Paisley Gilmour Street  Rail union TSSA and Neil Bibby MSP  join forces at Paisley Gilmour Street station on Friday 31 January at 10am to oppose ScotRail’s plans to drastically reduce the opening hours of 101 ticket offices.  TSSA activists and Neil Bibb warn passengers that ScotRail’s plans to cut ticket office hours by a whopping 2745 hours a week across the network.  TSSA says that the move will make the railway less safe for women and girls and less accessible for pensioners and passengers with disabilities. Passengers are also likely to pay more for their tickets without the friendly advice of a ticket office worker.    In many stations the loss of ticket office opening hours will also mean more anti-social behaviour.  Similar plans were widely rejected in England in 2023.  TSSA General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said, “Ticket office staff do far more than sell tickets—they provide essential support, safety, and accessibility for passengers.   “ScotRail’s proposals will make rail travel harder for pensioners, disabled passengers, and those with learning difficulties, while also increasing risks for women and vulnerable communities."  The union has launched a petition calling on Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, to direct ScotRail to abandon the reductions in ticket office hours and commit to keeping stations staffed in the future.  Rail union TSSA and Neil Bibby MSP join forces at Paisley Gilmour Street station to oppose ScotRail’s plans to drastically reduce the opening hours of 101 ticket offices.  TSSA activists and Neil Bibb warn passengers that ScotRail’s plans to cut ticket office hours by a whopping 2745 hours a week across the network.  TSSA says that the move will make the railway less safe for women and girls and less accessible for pensioners and passengers with disabilities. Passengers are also likely to pay more for their tickets without the friendly advice of a ticket office worker.    In many stations the loss of ticket office opening hours will also mean more anti-social behaviour.  Similar plans were widely rejected in England in 2023.  TSSA General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said, “Ticket office staff do far more than sell tickets—they provide essential support, safety, and accessibility for passengers.  “ScotRail’s proposals will make rail travel harder for pensioners, disabled passengers, and those with learning difficulties, while also increasing risks for women and vulnerable communities."  The union has launched a petition calling on Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, to direct ScotRail to abandon the reductions in ticket office hours and commit to keeping stations staffed in the future.

Transcript

00:00My name's Liz Warren Corney, I'm from TSSA and we are here at Paisley Gilmore Street

00:14today to protest ScotRail's plans to cut the opening hours of ticket offices across

00:18the network.

00:19We're looking at more than 2,700 hours lost across the whole of ScotRail, which will make

00:25the railway less accessible, less friendly and it make it harder to get a reasonable

00:29priced ticket.

00:30For example, if you're wanting to get a ticket and you want to buy it on the app or buy it

00:35on the machine, the systems are very confusing, you can't always use your discount cards and

00:39sometimes you might, in good faith, buy the wrong ticket for the journey.

00:43It's also a lot harder to get the cheapest ticket, whereas your ticket office person

00:47will know what the right ticket is for your journey and get you the best price.

00:51If you are a woman travelling alone at night and there's no longer staff in the ticket

00:56offices, that means the station's lost a safe place for you and it can be very creepy,

01:00very dark and very threatening on your own in the station at night.

01:03I know of lots of stations where anti-social behaviour is already a problem, if you take

01:09away the ticket office, you take away the person who can call up the police and get

01:12them out to sort the behaviour out.

01:14I'm particularly concerned about people with disabilities, people with disabilities will

01:19have to start booking their journeys, at the moment they have the right to turn up and

01:22travel whenever they want and if there's somebody there on the ticket office, they can help

01:26them on and off the train, get out a ramp or whatever, otherwise ScotRail like to say

01:31that they'll still be able to travel and it's true, but you'll have to book your journey

01:35in advance and that's just not fair.

01:37Disabled people should have the same ability to use ScotRail as the rest of us.

01:40We're not sure exactly when the proposals will be kicking in, we're expecting it to

01:44be around about April, certainly the consultation ends in February.

01:48What we're asking people to do now is to get in touch with their MSPs, ultimately ScotRail

01:53is in the public hands, it means the Scottish Government makes the final decisions, so get

01:58in touch with your MSP, call them up, write to them, use the tool on our website and tell

02:03them that you don't want this, that this is a bad idea and that you want to keep the ticket

02:07offices open, Scottish Government can get involved and tell ScotRail to stop.

02:11My name's Neil Bibby, I'm a member of the Scottish Parliament for the West of Scotland

02:14region and I'm at Paisley Gilmore Street today speaking with and listening to TSSA

02:19staff who are concerned about proposals from ScotRail to cut ticket hours at Paisley Gilmore

02:25Street, Johnstone, Hillington West and other stations across the ScotRail network.

02:29They've really stressed to me the importance that ticket office staff play in terms of

02:33providing assistance to ScotRail passengers, whether that be disabled passengers and also

02:39assistance with passengers about information about train services and tickets etc.

02:44But also about the important role they play in ensuring safety and making sure that our

02:48railway is safe for all, so I'm listening to those staff today.

02:52There are concerns about the reduction in hours, we're seeing a reduction of 9 hours

02:55at Paisley Gilmore Street, 7 hours at Johnstone and 57 hours at Hillington West and that's

03:00causing real concern for the staff.

03:02There was a consultation previously on ticket office hours reductions, that showed that

03:08a significant number of passengers wanted ticket office hours to be protected and I

03:13think that ScotRail and the Scottish Government should listen to the views that were expressed

03:17in those consultations and seek to listen to the views again of passengers and staff

03:22when deciding on further changes to ticket office hours.

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