HOURS TO SAVE THEM

Fight steps up as time is fast running out

- ASHLEY COWBURN, SOPHIE HUSKISSON and DAVE BURKE

RAIL protesters waved Mirror placards emblazoned with the message "save our ticket offices in the campaign to force the Tories into a U-turn.

The demonstrators in Westminster were applauded by passers-by, while drivers honked car horns.

With time running out, hundreds of people took the fight to the Prime Minister's doorstep by taking part in the rally outside Downing Street.

Union leader Mick Lynch said the Tory-backed cull is being opposed "with all our might".

People have just hours left to help stop the mass closures because the public consultation closes today at midnight.

The proposals drawn up by train bosses are for ticket counters at 974 railway stations in England to be axed. The protesters marched through Westminster yesterday from the Department for Transport to Downing Street.

The message was for the Prime Minister to stop the cull.

Mr Lynch, general secretary of the RMT union, which organised the rally, told the Mirror: "The key to reversing this is Rishi Sunak instructing Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, to take a new look, make this a meaningful consultation."

With over 500,000 responses to the official consultation, Mr Lynch added: "They can't have half a million responses and just chuck them in the bin." He also accused Mr Sunak of not listening.

Mr Lynch said: "He's too busy creating enemies... I think he's trying to make as many target enemies ahead of next year's election and he's stopped governing.