Protests against the mass closure of rail ticket offices will take place on Thursday - as photos revealed passengers enduring long queues already.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union plans to demonstrate outside dozens of stations across England. It follows proposals announced by train companies last week that could see up to 1,000 ticket offices close over the next three years.
The firms gave one reason for the possible cull as a big drop in passengers buying tickets over the counter. They want traveller to use self-service machines instead.
But pictures which the RMT says were taken in the past week show, far from quiet, many people are still using ticket offices. A photo, said to have been taken on Sunday, showed a packed ticket office and entrance at Cambridge railway station.
Others had queues at ticket counters at Newton Abbot in Devon and Ipswich, Suffolk. The union also used social media to highlight out-of-order self-service machines.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Our union is taking our campaign to save ticket offices out into every town, city and village in this country.
“The recent announcements of ticket office closures is a fig-leaf for the wholescale de-staffing of stations, including safety critical train dispatch, safety critical train despatch staff, passenger assistance and other non-ticket office customer service workers.”
The union is taking strike action on July 20, 22 and 29 over pay, conditions and ticket office closures. The public is being urged to take part in a 21-day consultation, which started last week, on the proposed closures.
A spokesperson for GWR, which runs the Newton Abbot station, said: “One of the things these proposals is trying to reduce is queues like the one in the picture at Newton Abbot.
“Despite there being other members of staff on the station, the only place customers can go for travel advice/assistance etc is the ticket office.”
Greater Anglia is consulting on proposals to replace the ticket offices at Cambridge and Ipswich with “customer information centres”.
The RMT referred to a social media post where someone said, when they used a self-service machine, it quoted the cheapest price for the journey as £55.10.
“Price from friendly man in ticket office: £18.85,” the person added. TV presenter and novelist Richard Osman also backed the campaign to save ticket offices.
He tweeted: “I think ticket offices at railway stations are one of those things that remind of what a society should actually be.
“Real jobs and real interactions, and community can sometimes be placed above shareholder dividends. It’s a choice we can make.”
The Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators, argues that closing counters and moving staff to plarforms and concourses will help more passengers.
