RMT steps up tube ticket office fight with focus on Whitechapel

TUBE UNION RMT today pledged to step up the fight to defend ticket offices on London Underground with an all-out battle over the threat to the service at Whitechapel in East London.

RMT has registered its strong opposition to plans to remove the ticket office from Whitechapel station during the process of rebuilding the station for it to be served by Crossrail. The plans totally ignore the fact that the station serves an area which includes a busy market and a major hospital. The area is also known for its diverse local population, many of whom need to access staff support at an open ticket office rather than rely on ticket-issuing machines – machines that are vulnerable to vandalism.

RMT said today that the closure of just one ticket office breaks the important principle that there is staffed ticket office on every London Underground station and so could ‘open the floodgates’ to further closures. Having defeated LU’s previous attempts to close ticket offices en mass, the union will not stand by and allow the company to close them one at a time. The union has made it clear that it will take whatever action is necessary, up to and including industrial action, to oppose this closure.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“The threat to the ticket office at Whitechapel is a line in the sand as far as RMT is concerned and we will fight this plan tooth and nail.

RMT is in no doubt that if the Whitechapel ticket office is axed it will open the floodgates to a surge of closures in the drive to de-staffing which will turn the Underground into a criminals paradise and leave passengers who need support and advice stranded.

RMT will be taking this political fight for the future of ticket offices straight to Boris Johnson, reminding him that he publicly pledged not to close tube ticket offices as part of his election campaign.”