- Conference
- 2023 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 14 June 2023
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Almost 1,000 ticket offices are set to close across the country with the loss of thousands of jobs and creating accessibility problems for different types of travellers, especially for older people and persons with disabilities not using smart phones or computers, without ticket offices and on station support a huge swathe of passengers could be excluded from the railway altogether.
The Rail Industry is carrying out a consultation in August and is scheduled to start the process of closing offices from October.
As an example, when travelling using a ticket purchased on Trainline for a specific train operating company, and the train is cancelled with a need to rebook on a different company, this is where the ticket office is important as staff have access to trains and timetables and can advise which new train will be required and how to obtain a refund. When booking at a Ticket office, staff advise on train times best fare option and actually print a ticket with a QR code for the train ticket inspector. Smart phones with a ticket rely on the phone being charged and being readily accessible for inspection this does not always happen, or the person has the wrong type of ticket.
Action is necessary to support the Rail Union in trying to stop these Ticket office closures which will dramatically effect older persons.
Therefore, conference calls on the Government to stop the closure of Ticket offices which will have detrimental effect on older persons
Therefore, this conference asks the National Retired Members Committee to:
. Raise our concerns with Unison National Executive Committee and welcome support from other sections of Unison.
. To campaign alongside organizations such as, National Pensioners Convention NPC and Trade Union Congress {TUC} and other sympathetic groups who realise that a very high number of UNISON Retired Members do not have access to relevant IT to do business without train station ticket office staff. This campaign is to stop the closure of booking offices.