South West Trains to cut 500 staff (From Your Local Guardian)

South West Trains to cut 500 staff

8:26am Friday 16th January 2009

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Staff manning ticket offices at South West Trains’ stations may lose their jobs after it was announced that almost 500 posts are to be cut by the rail operator.

The firm - which runs trains from London Waterloo to the south and south west of the country through south west London - revealed around 480 management, administration and other roles would go after an “efficiency” review.

An SWT spokesperson confirmed some of these jobs would go in ticket offices but could give no information as to where those losses would occur.

The ticket office job cuts - up to 118 posts - were first announced last June. They and are being reviewed in the wake of the announcement by transport minister Lord Andrew Adonis that SWT could not proceed in full with a plan to reduce ticket office opening hours at 114 stations across the network.

Last summer the rail operator put together a plan to alter ticket office times and cut jobs but Lord Adonis rejected some of the cutbacks and SWT is preparing to reveal which ticket offices will have their hours altered.

The SWT spokesperson said:”We are proposing to reduce the costs of our rail operation and make some changes to the way we manage our business, but we will continue to operate the same number of train services for our passengers.

“In line with our responsibilities, we have begun consultation with trade unions about these plans.”

She added that 118 positions would be the very most that would be cut and the rail firm has not recruited in some areas as it was awaiting Lord Adonis’ response to its ticket office plans so there would be fewer staff being made redundant.

The firm hoped natural turnover or voluntary redundancy would account for many of the job cuts but did not rule out compulsory redundancies.

The RMT, Britain’s biggest rail union, promised it would resist the “unjustified” job losses as SWT, and it’s parent company Stagecoach, had taken “huge profits” from the industry.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the union, said: “These privateers are supposed to be running a public service, but as soon as their massive profits come under threat the first people to suffer are the people who actually do the work.

“There is no way that SWT can cut these jobs without affecting the quality of service that passengers receive and putting a greater burden on the workforce that remains.”

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