Station closures in Greater Western franchise

The tendering process for the new Greater Western franchise is being conducted under the terms of Sir Roy McNulty’s Rail Review before Government has published its response in full. The RMT union blames this for the closure of ticket offices at 29 category E stations and reductions in opening hours at 17 category D stations. The McNulty Rail Review advocates 30% reductions in operating costs, and the Government response, expected to take the form of a ‘command paper’ has not yet been made. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “It is an insult to democracy that the Greater Western franchise is being tendered on the basis of a half-baked and totally bogus set of ideas advanced by McNulty before they have even been endorsed by the country’s law makers. “This a pre-emptive strike that will lead to a massacre of the ticket offices from London to Wales and the South West with hundreds of station and train based jobs on the line and the quality of passenger services dumped in order to ramp up private profits.” Tell us what you think at opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com