No closures for Overground (From Harrow Times)

No closures for Overground

5:09pm Friday 7th October 2011 in Your letters

Given their publicity regarding the possible closure of ticket offices at Hatch End and Headstone Lane stations, I was surprised not to see Councillors James Bond and Stanley Sheinwald at the recent AGM of Harrow Public Transport Users Association.

Had they been there, they would have received some very positive news indeed. The meeting was informed by chairman Tony Wood that, having contacted London Overground operators (LOROL), he had been assured there are no plans to close any ticket offices on the Overground network — which includes Hatch End, Headstone Lane and Kenton stations.

In addition, the list of supposed ticket office closures produced by the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) actually includes a number of stations which don’t even have ticket offices, so errors have clearly been made when compiling this list.

It might have been wise for Cllrs Bond and Sheinwald to make efforts to contact LOROL themselves to seek confirmation, instead of relying on information from TSSA that now appears to be inaccurate.

Had they done so, they would have avoided causing any unnecessary worry, as well as perhaps undermining their credibility if these ticket offices are under threat in the future.

Councillor John Nickolay
Conservative Traffic and Transport Spokesman, Pinner South Ward