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TfL 'spent £45m on redundancy payouts for 800 staff members' over ticket office closures

Redundancy: TfL has spent £45m making more than 800 people redundant over plans to close ticket offices on the Undergound: Getty Images
Redundancy: TfL has spent £45m making more than 800 people redundant over plans to close ticket offices on the Undergound: Getty Images

Transport for London has reportedly spent about £45m making more than 800 people redundant over a controversial plan to close ticket offices.

Some 823 staff members took redundancy payouts while 54 left for other reasons such as retirement, according to the BBC.

Following a review of the decision, the TSSA union said 325 of the same jobs were reintroduced after TfL made the cuts to help pay for the likes of the Night Tube.

But TfL said the cost of the payments was “significantly less” than the savings that were made as a result, and that it had always planned to review staffing levels after the closures.

In statement, it said: "The one-off voluntary severance costs associated with the closure of ticket offices in 2016 are significantly lower than the hundreds of millions of pounds we will be saving across our business plan from these changes.

"We are now undertaking the biggest overhaul in our history which will save £4bn over the next few years and enable us to deliver a modern, affordable and accessible transport network for all Londoners."

The plans to close offices on the Underground were announced in 2013 by the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson.