Ticket offices at 14 train stations in Cheshire be closed permanently, including Alderley Edge, Handforth and Wilmslow.
Plans to axe up to 1,000 ticket offices across the UK were unveiled by the government on Tuesday, 5th July, having been proposed by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) - an industry body which represents private railway operators.
Face-to face counters will remain at some of the busiest stations, including Manchester Piccadilly.
Customers will now have to purchase tickets via apps and websites or self-service machines at stations.
Jacqueline Starr, Rail Delivery Group chief executive, said "The ways our customers buy tickets has changed and it's time for the railway to change with them.
"With just 12% of tickets being sold from ticket offices last year, and 99% of those transactions being available on TVMs or online, our proposals would mean more staff on hand on to give face to face help with a much wider range of support, from journey planning, to finding the right ticket and helping those with accessibility needs."
The trade union RMT condemned the proposals to close ticket offices.
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "The decision to close up to 1,000 ticket offices and to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff is a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public.
"Travellers will be forced to rely on apps and remote mobile teams to be available to assist them rather than having trained staff on stations.
"This is catastrophic for elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers trying to access the rail network."
He added "They want to cut costs, make profits for shareholders, and run the network into the ground without a thought as to the vital role the rail industry plays in the country's economy.
"RMT is mounting a strong industrial, and political campaign to resist ticket office closures and station staff cuts. And we will continue our fight on July 20, 22 and 29 when 20,000 railway workers on the train operators go on strike."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
It's a sad change which will make travelling by train an increasingly unpleasant experience.
This move in UK to close ticket offices to save costs should NOT be done UNTIL our ticketing is simplified, to ensure one can easily buy the right ticket at the right price on-line or from a ticket machine.
Mick Lynch is barking up the wrong tree when (by referencing shareholders) he apparently blames Train Operating Companies for "wanting to cut costs (and) make profits for shareholders". As rail pundit 'The man in Seat 61' says of that:
"The DfT now pays all the railway's costs including the cost of ticket offices. DfT gives the train operators 2% on top as their management fee. So paradoxically, if offices close, operators will lose the 2% they're paid on those ticket office costs. So closing ticket offices actually *cuts* their profits". So it ain't the TOCs who are driving this.
This is politics. It's the DfT sidestepping the rail unions, and the government is just letting the DfT (who are solely cost driven and uninterested in cost / benefit analysis) do their thing. Those who will suffer are the passengers, but no one, not government, not DfT, nor rail unions is batting for them. The government promised to set up 'Great British Railways' to remedy this and Derby won the competition as the place where it would be based. But GBR is now on the back burner, probably at least until the next election.
Another rail pundit, Christian Wolmar, sums this up saying we now have a "who gives a damn" railway. Sadly, with our railways now a political football, he is spot on.
"How will YOU be impacted by the proposed changes to the ticket office?". (One form to be sent to each of the relevant 13 train companies as this is not a national consultation).
The alternative is to email, and there is a postal address to write to or a number to telephone. However, the digitally excluded would need to be online in the first place to get that information. Nowhere have I seen alternative ways of informing the digitally excluded how to comment/ object. If you are leaving a sector of society out of that consultation then surely it can not be legal. I also have concerns about the short amount of time allowed for the process i.e. all comments to be received by 26th July.
Our website here https://www.handforthstation.org.uk/contact-2/ summarises what we feel will be the biggest impacts specifically for Handforth, and it also contains a simple form which can be filled in online to provide feedback.
We are also planning to make paper feedback forms available at the station.
In short, the Friends of Handforth Station can see few benefits to these proposals, and feel that the disadvantaged in our community, and those without an App, and those who pay in cash, and others will be severely and negatively affected if these proposals go through.
@Julie Green completely agree. There has to be some way of getting a form, maybe at a ticket office? (!)
They have guaranteed no compulsory redundancies and all stations with ticket offices with simply have ‘human’ ticket sales moved to the platform or concourse- it won’t impact the tiny minority who cannot or will not use online/machine options.
I suspect the biggest bugbear is that Mick Lynch (the most political player) is worried his members won’t be able to sit in their offices doing very little apart from selling a ticket an hour, they’ll be visible out with the rail customers assisting with other aspects as well as selling tickets.
Comments have to be in by 28 July.
As far as the Wilmslow ticket office is concerned, is this an issue that Residents of Wilmslow could take up?
Several correspondents here have wondered about former ticket office staff wandering station concourses and platforms like lost souls, to help passengers with ticketing enquiries or anything else. I suspect that if this happens at all, it won't happen for long. The closing of all but a few ticket offices on the system is bound to result in many redundancies, and implementing these these does not require any consultation with the rail unions. It's a way of cutting the costs of rail while side-stepping those unions.
My personal view is that this proposal disproportionately impacts on the elderly and disabled, is therefore at risk of being considered discriminatory under the Equality Act and without an appropriate equality impact assessment should not have even been presented for consultation.