It has been a month since the station grades conference and the launch of “Staff our Stations”. The launch of this initiative has a truly national feel with national implications that will affect people up and down the land. This is also an initiative that has gathered momentum locally. TFL have already requested a FOI (Freedom of Information) to the gather the statistics on the amount of time that stations are left derelict of staff and this equates to approx 5 hours each day for every day of the year.

Stations that are left devoid of staff are not able to be used by customers who require specialist assistance and some outlying stations are at much greater risk of criminal and anti-social behaviour which affects staff, public and the stations infrastructure, ultimately this has a wider impact on the local communities that the stations serve.

Many train operating companies (TOC) see this as a way to increase profit but are happy to employ security staff WITHOUT the correct skills to deal with incidents that occur at the stations. They are also keen to outsource ticketing to third party providers who charge more but yet are unable to provide the ticketing services for more complex journeys. Both these actions by the TOCs acknowledge that the lack of staff create problems and yet they are prepared to outsource these service saving a minimal amount despite the end result becoming a dereliction of the stations and the local community that the stations serve, which leads to a wider impact across the whole network.

TFL’s promise to customers, that every station would be staffed from open to close across the network has not been delivered. TFL seem to have lost sight of what a public transport service is “ A Transport Service for the People” and whilst a profit will serve also and promote the benefits to stakeholders and investment in the system which will ultimately maintain the longevity of the network, this can only be worth preserving if the Network is truly a “Service for the People”, this principle should always be at the forefront of every policy.

TFL’s current journey will only serve to degrade our network further and the situation will continue to get worse. This will affect all who have invested in our network; Staff, Public and ultimately the profit for investment.

Please support the early day motion and write to your MP.

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/52689/staff-our-stations-sos-...

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Tre Crossfield