Mayor answers to London

Ticket office closures.

Question number	2477/2007
Meeting date	17/10/2007

Question by Bob Blackman

Now that you have shelved your plan to close station ticket offices, what plans have you to consult the public over these proposals?

Answer by Ken Livingstone (2nd Term)

London Underground (LU) has been consulting with its staff, trades unions and stakeholders including London TravelWatch, MPs and Tube user groups about the redeployment of staff from ticket offices selling very few tickets to passenger facing duties. This consultation is continuing and London Underground will review the results of consultation and allow time for the full benefits of new ticket machines and the expansion of the Ticket Shop network before determining the appropriate changes to ticket office services in the light of continuously falling ticket sales from ticket offices as customers switch to Oyster.

The success of Oyster has led to a huge reduction (up to 80% in some cases) in the number of customers using the ticket office to pay for their travel.