CAMPAIGNERS and unions slammed “catastrophic” plans announced today to close almost every railway station ticket office in England, warning that disabled and elderly passengers will be put off travel.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said “hundreds of redundancy notices” are being issued to ticket office staff as
the industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) unveiled the proposals.

General secretary Mick Lynch said: “The decision to close up to 1,000 ticket offices and to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff is a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public.

“This is catastrophic for elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers trying to access the rail network.

“Some of the train operators issuing our members with statutory redundancy notices today are cutting two-thirds of their workforce.”

He added, the RMT, which has been engaged in more than a year of strike action on the railways in a bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions, will mount a “strong industrial, and political campaign to resist ticket office closures and station staff cuts.”

Vivienne Francis, chief social change officer at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said: “A mass closure of rail ticket offices would have a hugely detrimental impact on blind and partially sighted people’s ability to buy tickets, arrange assistance and, critically, travel independently.”

Transport Salaried Staffs Association interim general secretary Peter Pendle said: “We are clear the government will face strong opposition from this union on the totally unnecessary mass closure of ticket offices.”

And Neil Middleton, director at pressure group Railfuture, warned: “Even though there may be a cost saving, if fewer passengers are on the trains it is very easy to see that income will reduce.”

The RDG pledged there will be “more staff available to give face-to-face help” by moving ticket office staff on to station platforms and concourses as part of a plan to  "modernise customer service.”

RDG chief executive Jacqueline Starr said: “The ways our customers buy tickets has changed and it’s time for the railway to change with them.”

Operators are to choose which offices to close following a consultation in a programme is expected to last for three years.

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said Tory ministers were refusing to say how many stations have alternatives to ticket offices, “what the impact will be on jobs, or how it will hit vulnerable rail users.”