The key issue for me (and I suspect if the truth is known  Mark Hopwood and his teams) is the current stranglehold on GWER services that the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) have as a result of not yet allowing Mark asnd his teams to operate without their heavy hand.  Thus they could tell Mark that he must shut every booking office across the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) system (and that is a real threat) as they told GWR to get rid pof the through trains to Brighton (on the stupid premise that people didn't travel all the way to Great Malvern from Brighton). Coupled with telling SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) that the Bristol to London through trains should be scrapped, the DfT (who clearly know little or nothing about transport) are simply as one RAIL magazine writer stated "timkering at the edges".  we know for a fact that 50 people had to be turned away from the GWR Brighton train whoich showed its popularity and it was significant that SWR managers (because they knew full well it would undermine the DfT's case chose not to reinstate the most popular early morning rain of the day from Bristol.  When there is an nexistential threat to hard working an much needed station staff it is little wonder the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) had such a resounding yes and I don't blame them at all.  It will be interesting to see whether the local MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) pay lip service to the threat of staff redundancies in their patch and complain in the full knowledge that the cuts will go through or whether they are prepared to save their less than safe seats (for example that of Michelle Donelan) by actually doing something to stop the proposed cuts.  It would be ironic if staff cuts end in their own tenure as an MP being cut.  We shall see.