Press Release 12th July 2023

The ticket office consultation is a mess – 101 unanswered questions with two weeks to go to comment

Railfuture has taken a look at the various Train Operator consultations and has found a morass of inconsistency and no sensible evidence that the proposals will collectively be good for passengers or taxpayers. Time is running out for there to be news that we will get sensible improvements to current proposals.

We have a metaphorical “101 questions” – which could easily have turned into 1,001, 10,001 or possibly even 100,001 if we were to go right into the detail of the repeated failures.

We strongly encourage everyone to respond to the Transport Focus / London TravelWatch consultation (use London TravelWatch’s Map to work out who to respond to). We think it essential that respondents explain which of the services that a ticket office provides they use (and why).

Neil Middleton, Railfuture Director who leads on fares and ticket’s commented “The consultation is just so disappointing and has such little ambition to get passengers to use the railway. The talk is about ‘just 12% of sales transactions are at ticket offices’ – but that could equate to over £1bn of income per annum. That is a lot of money at risk and there appears to be no analysis to work out what portion of it is likely to be lost. If 20% of it disappears, that’s almost £600,000 per day” (note 1).

Chris Page, Railfuture Chair went on to comment “The consultations say things like Equality Impact Assessments have been undertaken, and then we look at Accessible Travel Policies from a Train Operating Company (TOC) and the promises in it start after the ticket has been purchased. Whilst we can understand the cost savings from encouraging online and Ticket Machine purchase, they’re not for everyone – many (but definitely not all) of the old, and others such as those with sight issues”. 

Neil went on to comment “Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer noted over the weekend that he had been turned down for a credit card from Monzo. Whilst it appears that was due to his job, many others struggle to get credit and debit cards for many reasons from credit history to identity verification”.

Railfuture Director and Vice President Stewart Palmer commented “This is yet another example of the need to restructure responsibilities in the English Railway – this consultation is being fronted by the Train Operators but is really being made by the Government, which is divided because of the split between revenue and cost control (HM Treasury and the Department for Transport). And Great British Railways is nowhere to be seen. The current arrangement where no one is seemingly in charge and the Government hides behind the train operators simply doesn’t work”.

Neil further commented “There were many open goals that were missed to make best use of what already exists – Chiltern’s ability to issue any ticket from a Welcome Desk, Northern’s Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) issuing more types of tickets; East Midlands Railway having a comprehensive ticket issuing machine for their Guards – All these could have been selected for much wider deployment and, if together, were to become standard practice across the whole of the national rail network, then current service level to passengers could have been delivered in a different way.

10 particularly thought provoking questions are:

1. The Manchester Piccadilly to Glossop line is going to have just one ticket office.  Why on earth is it going to be in Glossop? [with 588,556 entries / exits (Manchester Piccadilly has 19,581,442 entries / exits]?  (If you live in Glossop, rest assured – the answer we want is Manchester Piccadilly and Glossop)].
2. Chiltern can do it – plan to put staff outside the ticket office and allow them to issue every type of ticket – why can’t every TOC make this promise when they are planning staff to be present, but away from the Ticket Office?      
3. Where’s the study that analyses why people buy from ticket offices? (We know the portion of sales, but we don’t know why – don’t use the Internet, confident Internet buyer, but don’t understand rail ticket choices…)
4. For some stations (eg Boston), the proposal is to replace the ticket office with mobile staff – but there isn’t even a promise of a set time – not much use for anyone who wants to go to the station to get advice – why isn’t there a promise of set times?   
5. What about Toilet and Waiting Room hours? (These normally align with Ticket Office Hours / Staff presence) – we've heard suggestions that these will now be open when not staffed. But that is much easier said than done… [We know from discussions on Hadley Wood station that there is no standard to allow Toilets to be open when unattended.]
6. What is average and median sale price of a ticket sold in a ticket office? [We know the average price of all tickets - £6.27, and we think it could be noticeably higher for in-person purchase, given more advice needed for a longer / more expensive journey].
7. GWR have published detailed sales data per station – why haven’t all the TOCs?      
8. Where is the assessment that works out how many people will stop using trains if they can't buy in-person and must use a TVM or online.  How much revenue (not just journeys) is at risk?       
9. Where is the reassurance that the alternatives will be sorted first, then the ticket office windows closed?     
10. Why does the Thameslink Accessible Travel Policy start after the passenger has bought their ticket, not before? [We think this is typical of all TOCs].

The full list of 101 questions is here https://www.railfuture.org.uk/display3375.
Railfuture continues to fine tune its tests for alternatives to the Ticket Office. The proposal could “be good” if it includes promises that:

• Passengers can still buy tickets from a staff member all the times they can now – and that this right is protected in the same way that ticket office hours are now.
• Staffed hours at stations do not reduce – and increase where possible.
• There is better passenger assistance because there will now be more staff on the platform or gateline (and there is a clear meeting point to get help at).
• There is significant investment to improve self-service – above all to build confidence for online passengers and the convenience of use of e-tickets.
• That every type of ticket is available online and on TVMs and both are made easier to use,
• Evidence that ticket simplification is, at last, recognised as an important way to increase confidence in self-service.

Notes to editors:

Our 2 July Press Release “Ticket Office closures - Penny wise, Pound foolish”: https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Press-release-2nd-July-2023

Website article on ticket offices: https://railfuture.org.uk/article1898-More-on-Ticket-Offices

Website article on fares reform: https://railfuture.org.uk/article1884-Fares-after-Covid

Note 1 ORR - https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2207/passenger-rail-usage-jan-mar-2023.pdf £2.2bn of Passenger Revenue 1 Jan – 31 Mar 2023. Railfuture can only apportion by sales volume as other data is not available. 

Railfuture is the UK's leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight.

Railfuture's website can be found at: www.railfuture.org.uk

Follow Railfuture on Twitter: twitter.com/Railfuture  

For further information and comment please contact:

Bruce Williamson, media spokesman
Tel: 0117 927 2954 Mobile: 07759 557389
media@railfuture.org.uk

Neil Middleton, Director
Mobile: 07887 628367
neil.middleton@railfuture.org.uk