Wimbledon Park tube station at heart of threatened union walkout (From Your Local Guardian)

Wimbledon Park tube station at heart of threatened union walkout

6:10pm Monday 30th August 2010 in

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An “underused” tube station ticket office is at the heart of a row that could shut down the underground system.

Transport for London claims the fact staff at Wimbledon Park station sell just 12 tickets an hour, despite their office opening only during peak times, shows how opening hours at ticket counters across London need to be cut.

But Transport unions RMT and TSSA have pledged to resist the changes, which they claim will lead to 800 job losses, and threatened to strike over the issue next week.

TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty said: "Boris Johnson may be prepared to go into the Olympic Games with a second-class Tube service when the eyes of the world will be on the capital, we are not.

"We will defend a vital public service on which millions of people depend every day of their working lives.”

The Arthur Road station’s “underused” office was one of 30 singled out by transport bosses in a war of words ahead of the series of monthly 24-hour strikes set to begin on Monday.

Its ticket desk currently opens from 7am to 10am and 4.30pm to 6.30pm on weekdays - but TfL claims it sells only 60 tickets a day.

The organisation wants to reduce hours at manned ticket offices - and claims rising use of Oyster Cards, ticket machines and internet sales mean less purchases are made at the desks.

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "It is simply not possible to go on with a situation where some ticket offices sell fewer than 10 tickets an hour.

"It is clear that passengers can be better served by getting staff out from behind the windows of under-used ticket offices.

"We need to change, but we will do so without compromising safety, without compulsory redundancies, and in a way that means all stations will continue to be staffed at all times and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one."