Local Overground Ticket Offices Among 51 Saved from Closure

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Mayor Sadiq Khan says extra £5 million has been made available to keep them open

Proposals to close over 50 ticket offices at London Overground stations across London, including Imperial Wharf, Olympia and Shepherd's Bush, have been dropped by Mayor Sadiq Khan.

He says that an additional £5 million funding from London's business rates has been made available to keep offices open.

All stations will continue to have staff on the premises from 15 minutes before the first train of the day until 15 minutes after the last train leaves.

However, at quieter stations, ticket offices may only be open during the morning rush hour, from 7.30am till 10am on Monday to Friday.

From this five million pound total, £1million will be invested in new technology to improve stations, including remote-controlled ticket barriers and trials of video-link ticket machines this summer.

The Mayor said: "I have asked TfL to ensure that no ticket officers will be closed permanently. I am proud of the service the London Overground provides to hundreds of thousands of Londoners every day."

London TravelWatch says its campaign to keep the offices open was a reason for the change of policy. In September 2018, the campaign group held a consultation on the proposals which were drawn up by operating company Arriva Rail receiving over 6,500 responses from a range of organisations and individuals.

Arriva had claimed demand at these stations did not warrant the continued operation of the offices.

Arthur Leathley, Chair of London TravelWatch welcomed the Mayor’s intervention, saying: "An overwhelming majority of those who responded to our consultation on the plans to close 51 ticket offices felt strongly that they should not close. We are pleased that the Mayor has asked TfL to reconsider the proposals and found the money to keep 47 of them open.

"Many London Overground passengers rely on the ticket office to buy their tickets and I am delighted that we have secured significant investment in ticketing and customer service as a result of our activity."

The RMT Union also claimed credit for the volte face. RMT General Secretary, Mick Cash said:
" This is a significant victory for RMT members at the front line of the London Overground service who led the campaign to stop this ticket office carnage and jacked up the political pressure to reverse the cuts.

" It proves that trade union campaigning works. However we remain vigilant as in our experience once a package of cuts is proposed they remain an option in the longer term. Any backsliding will result in a new blast of pressure from this trade union and our national campaign to staff our stations and retain ticket offices continues."

You can see a full list of stations where offices have been saved here.

April 18, 2019