Lisa Nandy MP: Let rail operators know your views

Staff will be moved out of ticket offices and onto platforms in a move backed all the way by the Government.

The proposals will see the loss of the ticket office at Wigan North Western and reduced opening hours for the office at Wigan Wallgate. Offices in other local stations such as Hindley, Atherton and Daisy Hill are also set to go under the plans.

Across Greater Manchester 86% of ticket offices will close and Transport for Greater Manchester say that under the plans station staffing will be reduced by over 250 jobs.

The news of these proposed closures will be deeply worrying for the hundreds of thousands of people employed in our rail industry and the millions of passengers who rely on the support and advice provided by staff in ticket offices.

Nationally one in nine tickets are still sold at physical ticket offices. In ticket offices operated by Northern this is higher with one in six tickets sold at offices. Around two million tickets a year are sold at Greater Manchester ticket offices alone and across the country around 150 million people used a ticket office last year.

I have had particular concerns raised with me regarding the people who would be disproportionally affected by rail ticket office closures, such as elderly and disabled rail users that may otherwise struggle to use digital or ticket machine alternatives.

It is estimated that more than three million people over the age of 65 have never used the internet and rely on the help of ticket office staff when they wish to travel.

Research by the Royal National Institute of Blind People has found that only 3% of people with sight loss said they could use a ticket vending machine without problems and 58% said it was impossible.

As blind and partially sighted people have told me, roaming staff at stations are not an acceptable alternative to physical ticket offices.

Over 50% of Greater Manchester’s rail network is not currently fully accessible to people with disabilities and the de-staffing of stations will further affect people’s ability to use public transport.

It is vital that the Government and the rail industry offer assurances that these rail users will still have access to the support they need to use our rail network with confidence.

It is a sign of the contempt the Government has for rail passengers and ticket office staff that the consultation on these changes is set to last just 21 days despite the havoc this will cause on our railways.

The consultation will close on July 26 and I urge everyone who has concerns about these plans to let the rail operators know your views via www.transportfocus.org.uk/train-station-ticket-office-consultation/.

Passengers in Wigan are already suffering due to the chaos on our railways with the Government allowing private operators to profit while cancellations have reached record highs.

Closing our local ticket offices can only make a bad situation even worse.