Caroline Pidgeon

Research by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, has revealed London Underground are planning to close ticket offices across the underground by 7458 hours every week.

Responding to London Underground’s defence of the reduced hours and their repeated claim that all tube stations with a ticket office will continue to have one, Caroline Pidgeon said:

“London Underground and the Mayor are playing with words when they keep peddling the claim that no ticket office will actually close. The harsh reality is that if you can’t access a ticket office for most hours of the day it is effectively closed.

“Ticket office staff carry out many tasks to help customers, with their duties going far beyond just serving tickets. If staff numbers are severely reduced at 9 out of 10 stations it will become far more difficult for staff to help disabled and vulnerable customers and other people who need assistance including visitors.

“London Underground's simplistic portrayal of many ticket offices being quiet places where few tickets are actually sold overlooks the vital service and safety that staffed ticket offices provide. If the plans were to allow ticket office staff to go in and out of the office, depending on the needs at a station, and without a reduction in staff numbers that would help to improve customer services. But to simply cut ticket office hours and take away so many frontline staff makes no sense. In the end it is passengers who will lose out.”

In a guest column in the East London Advertiser this week, Caroline Pidgeon gives her views on transport issues across London:

We need to ensure that more people have access to good transport, if London is to become a fairer place...

Of course better transport is not the only step that needs to be taken. We also need to address the issue of fares... We shouldn't accept that fares have to be structured the way they are.

Other cities around the world such as New York and Paris have an honest debate about how fares are set. But we face just a yearly declaration from our Mayor.

If the voice of people on low incomes is to be heard, London fares need to be fair.

You can read the full article here (click on the front page of the Advertiser, and it will take you to Caroline's article).

Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on today’s apology by London Underground for the years of suffering faced by passengers on the Jubilee Line and the announcement that there will still be 15 weekends of full or partial closures before Christmas, said:

"This is grim news for all the Jubilee Line passengers who have suffered so much disruption over months and years. There is no light at the end of the tunnel just more and more closures.

The Hounslow Chronicle reports on Boris Johnson's refusal to divert the 110 bus to serve Whitton High St - despite the petition that Caroline Pidgeon presented to him in June with the backing over over 1,000 local residents. You can read the full story here.