Arriva Rail London Station Efficiencies

Head Office Circular No. NP/83/24

 

To all Branches and Regional Councils

 

2^nd April 2024

 

Arriva Rail London Station Efficiencies

 

Dear Colleague, 

 

I recently received a resolution from Waltham Cross and District branch on this matter: 

 

“Over the last four years the RMT has fought against the wholesale closure of all the booking offices on London Overground and National Rail. 

 

     Together with passenger groups, disability rights and equality rights groups, we have constantly asserted that fully staffed booking offices are fundamental to the safe and efficient operation of our rail network. They provide an accessible point of contact of the travelling public as well as access to services, rail products, information and safety. 

 

     We, the RMT, have now secured the continued operation of all booking offices on National Rail. This is a major achievement. 

 

     However, on London Overground, we are still operating under a highly restrictive environment. Services are being denied to the travelling public by an employer whose primary interest is private profit rather than a rail service based on public service. Significant numbers of the travelling public within the TfL area complain that we are unable to provide them with the services and products they require. 

 

     This situation will inevitably get worse over the ensuing months. TfL will remove 200 ticket machines from stations and only replace them with 20. Further restricting the public’s access to services and products. 

 

     To remedy this appalling situation, we require the NEC to undertake a campaign to: 

 

• Fully restore all London Overground booking offices to provide a full, comprehensive and all-inclusive service to the travelling public. 

 

    We demand: 

 

• The full restoration of all booking office opening hours to those Schedule 17 hours in operation prior to the highly restrictive hours currently in operation. 
• All booking offices to be equipped to provide all national rail and TfL products and services. This to include the reintroduction of full oyster capability to booking offices. 
• Increasingly members of the public are encountering issues with contactless payments. To ensure the travelling public are provided with the correct information, booking offices should have the equipment and ability to provide customers with basic information on the status of their contactless payments to enable them to travel on TfL services. 
• To facilitate all of the above, we demand a comprehensive staff training and development programme to ensure the efficient delivery of these services.”

 

This has recently been considered by the NEC which has instructed me to take up the matter in line with the resolution. 

 

I am therefore acting in line with this resolution and members and branches will be kept informed on progress. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary