Together with five other Labour Mayors, I am preparing to launch a legal action against the train operators' plans to close around 1,000 offices across England. For the good of the country, it's a campaign we must win.
If the Government and the rail industry get their way, it will erode what remains of public trust in travelling by train - and hasten Britain towards a faceless, soulless society.
Rail bosses justify their plans by saying that, these days, 88 per cent of tickets are sold online. There are two problems with that. First, it suggests the people who buy the other 12 per cent of tickets don't matter.
From our surveys, we know disabled people are less likely to be online than others. We also know ticket machines at many stations are physically inaccessible to them. It is clear to me that, if these plans proceed, disabled people will find it harder to travel by train than it already is.
The second problem is the implication that the brilliant people who staff our ticket offices do nothing more than sell tickets. Any regular train traveller knows they do far more than that.
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