AN INCREASE in the number of passengers travelling without tickets is expected to cost London Midland more than £400,000 if proposals to close some ticket offices and reduce the hours at others go ahead.

The figure comes from leaked documents which have been revealed by the RMT union, and follows a controversy last month when internal Department for Transport emails seen by Railnews suggested that the decision to close some LM offices had already been made, although transport minister Norman Baker later claimed the emails were incorrect and had come from a 'fairly junior' level within the DfT.

The calculations, which are marked 'confidential', suggest that reducing ticket offices would save London Midland a notional £1.25 million a year. It is not clear if any of these savings would be passed on to the DfT.

The RMT has claimed that 12 offices are set to close entirely, and that the hours would be reduced at 86 of the 90 others run by London Midland. It fears that more than 100 jobs could be put at risk.

But the figures also reveal that managers are bracing themselves for a rise in ticketless travel as a result of the economies. Fraud can be expected to rise, costing London Midland almost £417,000 by the time the present franchise ends in 2016.

Various operating costs caused by changing ticket office arrangements would also dent the savings significantly, and the net effect on profits would be an increase of some £1.4 million in total by the time the franchise ends.

Taxpayers would also lose out in the first year, because London Midland would claim corporation tax relief of almost £393,000 on the losses which could be expected, although this would be more than offset later on by the tax payable on the increased profits.

The general secretary of the RMT, Bob Crow, said: "We warned from the leaked DfT emails that this was a 'cash for closures' programme and the extent of the money that the company plan to rake in from this scandalous assault on jobs and services is now laid bare.

“Passengers, staff, politicians and user groups will be rightly angry when they see what this trail-blazer for the McNulty cuts means in cash terms for the profiteering private rail companies and we will be using this information to jack up the national campaign of resistance."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for London Midland said: "We have widely consulted on our proposal to change our ticket office opening hours - this includes consultation with our staff and the rail unions.

"Our proposals have been submitted to the secretary of state who is weighing up the issues and we are waiting for her decision.

"Our proposals will match ticket office opening hours with local demand and the savings made will provide best value for money for passengers and taxpayers."