Plans to close the ticket office at Westbury Railway Station have been heavily criticised by local rail campaigners and councillors.
The ticket office is set to be axed under proposals from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) which will see almost all the rail network’s 1,007 remaining offices closed within three years.
The RDG say the move will get staff out of ticket offices and into more ‘customer help’ roles meaning more face-to-face support for customers, but the plans have come under fire.
The Westbury Mayor, cllr Mike Sutton, has condemned the move and said that those without access to the internet or a smartphone will be “severely disadvantaged”.
He said, “The closure of railway ticket offices is being introduced, not for the benefit of the travelling public, but for the convenience and profit for the shareholders. Although it is accepted that many passengers now buy tickets online, there are many that do not and that large group will be severely disadvantaged.
“It should also be recognised that many people come to the ticket office for information and human contact and that should not be disregarded. Not everyone has access to the internet or smart phones and those people will be effectively disenfranchised and treated as second class citizens, unable to travel.
“Although the train companies say ticket staff will be redeployed to station platforms, that can be taken with a pinch of salt as after a few token appearances, they will quietly disappear or not be replaced.
“Passengers are told they can use ticket machines which is fine if they are always working, which is not always the case, but more importantly, they do not offer split ticketing or the cheapest route. They only sell the ticket the company wants to sell, which is often the most expensive.
“Passengers would have more tolerance if any savings would be used to reduce fares, which are the highest of any country in Europe and probably the world per mile. This action is more likely a cynical way to increase revenue, rather than any passenger benefit.”
Graham Ellis from the West Wilts Rail Users Group added, “The majority of rail passengers now use electronic means to self-purchase their tickets – online or through ticket machines at the station. But over 26,000 tickets were still sold at the ticket office at Westbury Station last year. Some of those could undoubtedly go electronic – but many of them use the ticket office because they need assistance in working out what ticket they need, because the ticket they need isn’t available from a machine, or because they’re disabled (including physical, mental and sensory) and cannot use a machine.
“Great Western Railway, under orders from the Department for Transport, is planning to close ticket offices at every station in Wiltshire (and almost all others in England) over the next year, with displaced staff invited to roam the station with iPads to help customers. But these iPads will not have the ability to print tickets (nor personalised timetables), nor will the former clerks carry a float to accept cash payment any more.
“Just imagine if you have limited mobility and arrive at Westbury Station without a ticket. If it’s working, you might be able to use the machine. Or you have to guess which platform the ticket expert is on – which lift you take and how do you find him/her on the platform? The information point has been removed from the waiting room, so there’s no obvious place to go. And even when you find the person and he helps you programme a ticket into the machine, you’ve got to go back down to the machine in the subway and – a third ride in the lift – back up to the platform to catch your train.
“For the majority of passengers at Westbury, the new system will work – but until the fare system is simplified and there’s a better system put in place, it’s discriminating against the new, occasional and nervous passenger, and the disabled, and putting up a barrier to rail against the very customers that the industry needs – to grow its users, increase its income and reduce its demands on the taxpayer. At a time when we should be encouraging people to be more environmentally friendly, we are giving them an incentive to use private cars, and at a time when we should be encouraging people out of their home for their health, we are pushing them towards staying at home and social exclusion, with the knock-on cost on our health service.”
Public transport and disabilities campaigner David Redgewell said: “We don’t think this is in the interests of passengers, especially passengers with reduced mobility and in need of assistance.”
He said tickets such as half-price fares for wheelchair users were not available at ticket machines, which sold only a limited range.
The proposals are being introduced following what the RDG is calling “a collapse in numbers of people using ticket offices.” An online consultation about these plans has been launched and it will close on Wednesday 26th July.
To have your say on the consultation visit: https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/ticket-office-consultation/ – all feedback must be received by Wednesday 26th July.
