Ticket Office Closures

A consultation – which will last just 21 days – was opened on 5 July. It proposes to close a large number of rail ticket offices, leaving ticket office facilities at just the busiest stations and interchanges.

Given that one in nine tickets are still sold at physical ticket offices, I know this announcement is causing huge amounts of anxiety, especially to vulnerable and disabled passengers. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has said that the mass closure of rail ticket offices “would have a hugely detrimental impact on blind and partially sighted people’s ability to buy tickets, arrange assistance and, critically, travel independently”.

Despite this, the Government has not published equality impact assessments alongside the consultations. We need answers to questions about what will happen for passengers who struggle to use digital alternatives to ticket offices, as well as to when digital and pay-as-you-go ticketing technology will be available across existing networks.

I am also aware that this announcement will be causing a great deal of worry to rail staff currently deployed in rail ticket offices. It is important that we know what will happen to them and what impact this will have on their job security.

I remain extremely concerned that this consultation is not about modernisation, but more cuts on our declining railways. Our rail services are already being run into the ground, with cancellations at record highs. I am deeply concerned that this process is simply a prelude to job losses that will mean far fewer staff to serve the travelling public, and the continued managed decline of our railways.

The government's proposals to close ticket offices show a reckless disregard for passengers and staff alike. Our Merseyrail stations will be immune from these plans because we control our own network - but the picture across the rest of the country is bleak.