Press Association
Sunday 12th February 2012
London Underground is to axe up to 800 jobs under plans to make savings of £16 million a year, the transport giant has announced.
The cuts will include 100 managers, 450 ticket office posts and up to 200 other jobs, although London Underground (LU) said it was committed to achieving the losses without any compulsory redundancies.
The company said it would achieve job reductions by not filling vacancies, offering voluntary severance and flexible working, and transferring staff to areas of greater customer need.
Between 700 and 800 jobs will be cut, but LU said no Tube station ticket office would close and staff will remain available to help travellers in ticket halls, gate lines and on platforms.
The number of CCTV cameras is set to increase by 2,000 to 14,000 over the next few years and the number of police patrolling the network has risen from 450 to more than 700, managers said.
LU said the proposals, including the job cuts, reflected the "huge success" of the pre-paid Oyster card, which now accounts for around 80% of Tube journeys.
There has been a "sharp decline" in tickets sold at station ticket offices in recent years, with just one in 20 Tube journeys starting with a ticket office transaction.
A network of 4,000 ticket shops now exists at shops and retail outlets across the capital, and there is growing use of internet sales and automatic top-ups, backed up by more self-service ticket machines at stations, said LU.
LU managing director Richard Parry said: "London Underground is committed to continuing to provide a safe and reliable service while operating even more services as we upgrade lines, create more capacity and respond to the changing requirements of our customers.
"We've set out these proposals because we want to work with our staff, trades unions, customers and key stakeholders to ensure that we can deliver the best customer service more efficiently."
