Rail campaigners pleased to see ticket office consultation extended

Passengers have been given more time to respond to proposals to modernise the way train tickets are sold at stations.

West Midlands Railway, alongside other train operators in England, has announced that the consultation will be extended to Friday, September 1, providing an extra five and a half weeks for people to have their say on how tickets are sold at stations.

The proposals represent the biggest change to train customer retailing since the 1990s, when 82 per cent of all tickets were sold at ticket offices, compared to around 12 per cent today.

John Watson, West Midlands regional organiser for the RMT union, was among those welcoming the extension of the consultation, saying that the train companies and partners had underestimated the public feeling.

He said: "It's a welcomed extension to the consultation period and I think the train companies, rail delivery group and the Department of Transport has underestimated the public opinion out there in regards to the feeling on closing ticket offices and the multi-skilling and de-staffing of stations that have been proposed with these proposals.

"It allows people further time to get their views into Transport Focus and the relevant groups as well and I would encourage people to continue contacting Transport Focus and give their feelings on this by lobbying their MPs.

"The RMT union will also be doing further days of action and leaflets in the campaign to keep ticket offices open at stations, with protests and getting local disability groups involved in the campaign as well."

Colin Major, West Midlands secretary for independent campaign group Railfuture, said he felt it allowed people more time to actually have their say and give their opinions, and spoke of his own thoughts on the importance of the ticket office.

He said: "It felt like a lot of people were given short notice to give their opinion and even through three weeks is the statutory period, with school holidays and other things around summer happening, it didn't give people a lot of time to properly think about it.

"I think the great thing about ticket offices at railway stations is that it provides advice in detail, especially to people who have perceptual or other challenges, such as people with arthritis, who find pressing buttons on a tablet ticket menu machine quite difficult.

"Losing railway station ticket offices will affect people who don't have bank cards and who use cash, as well as people who don't have smartphones, yet the Department of Transport are looking for everything to be done online and there are people who don't do things online."

Mr Major added: "It takes away that human advice that you might need when planning a journey, as a person in a ticket office will give you advice about the best route, where you can make a connection, where you need to change trains and will give you a travel plan.

"I'd also say that if they are going to make it so that you must buy a ticket from a machine, rather than a ticket office, there is going to need to be a significant upgrade in the software in the ticket vending machines as when you bear in mind that there are around 2,000 different tickets available to purchase, it will take a lot longer for people to use the machines."

Ian McConnell, managing director of West Midlands Railway, said: “By extending the consultation period we hope more passengers will be able to have their say on our proposals for ticket retailing.

“The extension will ensure a wide range of voices are heard which will be important to shape the outcome of the final plans.”

Further information on West Midlands Railway’s proposals can be found at wmr.uk/ticket-offices