London Underground is to run a trial of a new policy that customers will not be able to top up their Oyster card for less than £5 at the ticket office window. RMT opposes this policy, and having explained our objections to the company, we hope that LUL will see sense and rethink this ill-advised policy.

Our objections are as follows:

Customer Service?

1. We believe that London Underground should serve its customers. If a customer wants to put £3.50 on his/her Oyster card, s/he should be allowed to.

2. Our members do not want to say 'No' to customers who want to buy a ticket. We want to give them what they want.

3. This policy flies in the face of the name 'pay as you go'. LUL is making it harder for customers to pay as they go. Perhaps they should use the term 'Pay In Bigger Chunks Before You Go' instead.

4. Some people will be very angry about being refused the top-up that they want, especially if they have queued at the ticket office, or if not being able to get the top-up leaves them in difficulties. Sadly, we anticipate that this will lead to verbal abuse of ticket office staff and even physical assault against staff in the ticket hall. The big majority of assaults against staff take place in the ticket hall and involve disputes about ticketing.

Punishing the Poor

5. People put small amounts of credit on their Oyster card for a reason - because they can not afford to put on more. LUL's new policy plan suggests that the company does not want to serve these people - rather, it wants them to go elsewhere.

6. Say a customer has only a five pound note. S/he may need to top up her/his Oyster by £3 to get home, and may want to use the remaining £2 to get bread and milk on the way. LUL plans not to let the customer do this. Ticket office staff will not be allowed to put £3 credit on the Oyster, only £5, and the passenger-operated machines will not give change for the five pound note and will instead put the full £5 credit on the Oyster. A customer in this position will have three choices: walk home, do without bread and milk, or leave the station to find another ticket outlet such as a newsagent. This will put people in danger.

7. There is a recession. Unemployment is rising rapidly. Only 70.6% of Londoners of working age are in employment; in some parts of London, this figure is as low as 57%. Many people face negative equity, pay restraint and rising bills. If people are struggling financially, LUL's new policy will add to their difficulties and cause embarrassment and stress.

8. The trial will not reveal the full extent of the impact on poorer Londoners, as it is being run in boroughs such as the City of London (94% working-age employment = highest in Britain) rather than, say, Newham (57% working-age employment = lowest in Britain).

[Employment statistics, January 2009, Office of National Statistics]

No Good Reason

9. There is no good reason for this policy. LUL's explanation is that it wants to get people into the habit of buying larger amounts of credit. However, the fact that customers will still be able to add less than £5 credit at various other outlets shows that this 'reason' is disingenuous.

10. LUL can encourage people to put on larger amounts of credit if it wants to, but it should not force them to do so by withdrawing a service. Moreover, it can not force someone to spend £5 if they do not have £5 to spend.

11. LUL says that the policy will encourage shorter queues. We would like shorter queues too, but believe that the way to achieve this is to open more ticket office windows rather than to weed out poor people from the queue.

Driving Away Custom, Closing Ticket Offices

12. RMT believes that the real reason for this policy is to drive custom away from the ticket office window so as to justify closing ticket offices in future.

13. This is shown by the fact that the £5 minimum applies only at the ticket office window, not at the other outlets that LUL would prefer people to use eg. newsagents, the internet.

14. LUL's own documents reveal that it also plans to stop selling season tickets at ticket offices, to promote ticket-selling outlets away from London Underground stations, and to replace ticket offices with POMs at certain locations.

15. By asking ticket office staff to refuse to sell Oyster top-up in amounts less than £5, LUL is asking staff to give poor customer service, to risk abuse and assault, and to collaborate in the abolition of their own jobs.