TOMORROW, railway workers, passenger groups and disability rights campaigners will descend on Parliament to demand the ticket office closure programme be halted. 

RMT has spearheaded a mass campaign to save our ticket offices, protect jobs and prevent the destaffing of our railway stations.  

We have led the way with an 18-month campaign of industrial action and more recently a focus on encouraging the public to take part in the ticket office closure consultation process. 

An incredible half a million people have taken part and it is clear, from the feedback our members are getting at stations across the country, that the public are on our side. 

Despite the difficult task ahead and the manipulative propaganda spewed out by fat-cat railway companies, we have already forced concessions. 

Originally the railway companies, in league with their paymasters in government, were prepared to see the consultation last only three weeks to decide the fate of up to 1,000 ticket offices and the resulting 2,000-plus station staff job losses.

With the pressure of public scrutiny generated by the campaign, we were able to secure an extension until September 1. 

Disability rights campaigners have been truly heroic and inspirational in their dogged determination to expose the discriminatory agenda of the closure programme.  

It is impossible not to be moved by videos on social media, showing passengers with visual impairments, walking up to ticket machines without the aid of any station staff and clearly being unable to use the machines or purchase a ticket. 

Visually impaired passengers pointed out that travelling independently on the railway network would be impossible without the assistance of station ticket office staff. 

Recently the Guide Dogs charity came out fully against ticket office closures, pointing out that guide dogs are specifically trained to find the building that ticket offices are housed in. 

This means that if ticket offices were closed, guide dogs would not be able to assist their owners in being able to purchase the tickets as they are not trained to find mobile teams that the rail companies claim would make ticket offices obsolete. 

There has also been an attempt to cover up the results of disability impact assessments which have overwhelmingly shown train companies that closing ticket offices would have a disproportionately negative effect on disabled, vulnerable, and elderly passengers. 

The simple truth is that rail companies and the government want to close ticket offices to cut costs and maximise profits with the added aim of creating a dehumanised railway, solely reliant on technology. 

RMT is available for meaningful discussions on modernisation and change.  

But this has to be done through negotiation and must take into account the needs of railway workers and passengers of all types and circumstances.

The government is hell-bent on running our railways into the ground, while facilitating their friends in the train operating companies to extract as much wealth as possible from the railways and the public purse. 

In the meantime delays on the railway have become commonplace, even when unions are not on strike.  

And the plan now is to charge passengers who use the network obscenely high ticket prices, while disenfranchising the most vulnerable, who also need to use the railways. 

RMT will not sit idly by and allow the disabled, elderly and vulnerable to be shut out of the railway. 

The consultation closes on Friday, and it is vital that Morning Star readers take part before the closing date. 

Beyond tomorrow night’s demonstration we call upon all trade unionists and campaigners to join with us in pressuring the politicians, joining local campaigning activities in your area and supporting railway workers taking further industrial action this Saturday in defence of jobs, pay and ticket offices.

Together we can turn the tide and stop this unnecessary and cruel cutting of an essential service on our railways.

Mick Lynch is general secretary of RMT.