CarlisleCityRMT

Virgin Booking office closures – WRONG! 26.02.09

RMT have raised with the Department of Transport the potential early closure of ticket offices at Carlisle, Preston and Stoke on Trent – the company is closing ticket offices early (in some cases over 90 minutes early).

RMT supports the introduction of “tickets for travel today” windows and increases in staff resources at very busy times of the day – but believes at a time of increased fares ticket offices should remain staffed for longer periods …not less!

Craig Johnston – RMT Executive member for Carlisle and Preston said “Of course we support additional resources at ticket offices at the most busy times of the day and the introduction of designated ticket offices windows for travel today tickets is long overdue, however at a time of increasing fares Virgin always tell people to book in advance – the bottom line is it is more difficult to do that if your ticket office closes earlier”

RMT also believe the early closures are a major change to the provision and not a minor change as Virgin seem to be indicating – we believe there should be more consultation with the passengers over these changes.