YVONNE FOVARGUE MP: Concerned by rail ticket office closures

That news will be deeply worrying to my elderly and disabled constituents, the hundreds of thousands of people employed in our rail industry, the staff employed in my own constituency and all those who rely on the support and advice provided by staff in ticket offices.

One in nine tickets are still sold at physical ticket offices. That represents over 150 million of the 1.4 billion rail journeys recorded over the past year.

Given the fact that many of those passengers relying on ticket offices will be elderly and disabled rail users that may otherwise struggle to use digital alternatives, it is vital that assurances are provided that those rail users will still have access to the support they need to use our rail network with confidence.

Following the announcement, the Government was asked to make a statement.

The Transport Minister said that the changes announced by the train companies were, “about modernising the passenger experience by moving staff out of ticket offices to be more visible and accessible around the station”.

I am concerned that this announcement, which has been driven forward by the Department for Transport, is causing huge anxiety for vulnerable and disabled passengers and rail staff.

I am also concerned that they have been given just three weeks to respond to a change to the rail network that will affect more than 150 million journeys a year and hit elderly and disabled passengers the hardest.

It appears that the consultation will simply be a rubber stamp for a decision that has already been taken.

I do not believe that this change is genuinely about reforming our railways or modernisation – it is about making cuts.

Our rail services are being run into the ground, with cancellations at record highs, basic services such as wi-fi being taken away and legislation to reform the network abandoned. We need a Government that is able to fix the railways.

Under this Government, private operators have been allowed to profit whilst cancellations have reached record highs, basic services like Wi-Fi are at risk of being taken away, plans to bring forward legislation to reform services have been scrapped and now ticket offices are facing closures without thought for the vulnerable users that rely on them.

Our rail network is already failing passengers in Wigan and is in desperate need of reform.

But the people of this country have lost confidence in the Government to deliver a rail network that works for passengers.