Key information
Petition presented by: Caroline Pidgeon
Date petition submitted: Wednesday 19 January 2011
Petition presented at: London Assembly Plenary
Summary of petition
" I/We the undersigned support the campaign to protect the opening hours of South Woodford ticket office. We call on the Mayor to honour his 2008 manifesto commitment to safeguard London's ticket offices. We believe that ticket offices play a vital role in giving help to those most vulnerable in society when they are using the Underground. We believe consultation on these proposals has been poor with many Londoners unaware of them. We call on the Mayor to keep London's ticket offices open and not to reduce their ability to help passengers."
2) “I/we the undersigned support the campaign to keep open the ticket offices at South Woodford and Woodford Station. We call on Mayor Boris Johnson to honour his pre-election promise to protect ticket offices”
Response information
Name of person responding: The Mayor
Response date: Tuesday 1 March 2011
“I can confirm that the position has not changed since I last wrote to you on this matter. As I have already advised, the changes London Underground (LU) are proposing across the network are driven by the following:
• The significant decline in the number of customers using ticket offices, particularly following the success of the Oyster card;
• The tube investment programme and the need to adapt our staffing to reflect the introduction of new technology;
• The need to identify ways to deliver even greater value for tax and fare payers, without compromising the aspects of our service that are essential.
“At the core of LU’s proposals is a commitment to maintaining fully and safely staffed stations at all times of the day and night when our
services are running. Recent years have seen a major improvement in safety and security on trains and at stations. In addition to the greater presence of LU staff at gate lines and platforms, the number of Police patrolling the Tube network has risen from 450 to more than 700 today and last year crime fell eight per cent, with just 13 crimes for every million customer journeys. There are now over 12,000 CCTV cameras on the Tube network, with that figure due to rise to more than 14,000 in years to come, as well as more than 1,500 help points.
“LU has also committed to keeping ticket offices open at every one of our stations that currently has a ticket office service (with the exception of Cannon Street which is being redeveloped) – but with revised opening times to reflect the decline in demand for ticket offices. Today, only 1 in 20 journeys on the Tube starts with a visit to the ticket office and some 80% of journeys are made using an Oyster card. There is a growing use of internet sales and automatic top-ups and on stations, there is now much greater provision of self-service ticket machines, and a network of 4,000 ticket stops at shops and retail outlets across the capital.
“Therefore we have an opportunity to deploy staff to areas of the station where they can provide greater assistance – on platforms, ticket halls and gate lines, rather than behind a glass screen in a very lightly used ticket office.
“The number of staff on duty at any particular time of day will depend on the numbers of people using the station and the characteristics and complexity of the station itself. Many stations are also governed by regulations that specify minimum number of staff required for the station to remain open. These will continue to apply and will not change.”