Strike threats loom over job cuts in tube ticket offices

LONDON Underground has hit back following claims that job cuts could turn Hampstead and Highgate tube stations into death traps. The RMT and TSSA unions are currently preparing to take strike action this autumn against proposals to cull 800 ticket office

LONDON Underground has hit back following claims that job cuts could turn Hampstead and Highgate tube stations into death traps.

The RMT and TSSA unions are currently preparing to take strike action this autumn against proposals to cull 800 ticket office posts by February next year, but yesterday transport bosses begged them to reconsider.

Howard Collins, LU's chief operating officer, said: "It is simply not possible to go on with a situation where some ticket offices sell fewer than 10 tickets an hour.

"It is clear that passengers can be better served by getting staff out from behind the windows of under-used ticket offices.

"We need to change, but we will do so without compromising safety, without compulsory redundancies, and in a way that means all stations will continue to be staffed at all times and all stations with a ticket office will continue to have one.