Ticket Office closure consultation – Extension = Yes; The Right approach = Still No

Railfuture welcomes the extension in the deadline to the Ticket Office consultation deadline to 1 September. 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).

We’ve now made our own national submission and that’s available here: www.railfuture.org.uk/display3418 (and all our material, including a two page summary and previous press releases on the topic is here: www.railfuture.org.uk/Ticket-Offices).

Neil Middleton, Railfuture Director who leads on fares and ticket’s commented "The process should have started with a proper look at why some intending travellers use Ticket Offices and then identified how Online, Ticket Vending machines and Contactless are to be improved. Once that is done, then it’s time to debate ticket office hours – but even then, there are always going to be some for whom buying from a person will be the only option.

"We think the government forgets that buying a rail ticket isn’t like using the self-service lane at a supermarket to buy a can of baked beans. Instead, the intending purchaser has to navigate their way through the 2,822 ticket types on National Rail, with 901 names and 665 restriction codes (note 1) to work out what they need to buy. So, it’s no wonder the ticket office remains a popular choice for some intending passengers.

"We think that the claim of only 1 in 10 tickets sold at a ticket office masks a critical fact – very low ticket office sales in Greater London (eg Peckham Rye: 1.1%) are reducing the national average significantly. There are many stations outside London where ticket sales exceed 25% of all sales – eg Luton, where it is 30%. And given that a significant percentage of travellers will be heading to London regularly and know what ticket to buy, this just shows how important the ticket office is”.

Graham Collett, Railfuture’s Accessibility Champion went on to say "Buying tickets in-person from a staff member is so important for many with accessibility needs. As part of our national response we had a member comment ‘I'm partially sighted + my brain damage makes it difficult to understand new things. I tried once to use the ticket machine. It had no disabled discount plus I couldn't use it so had to go to the ticket office’. We think this needs to continue to be the case in the future."

Neil went on to say "It’s not the bricks and mortar of a Ticket Office that matter – it’s the people inside them and the passenger help they can give, whether that’s selling a ticket or something else. If the Government wants those staff to be away from the Ticket Office, they should be investing now to improve mobile ticket issuing – some TOCs Guards already have the facilities so it can be done – no TOC is an island and surely other TOC’s can avoid reinventing the wheel."

Notes to editors:
Our 12 July Press Release “The Ticket Office consultation is a mess – 101 unanswered questions with two weeks to go to comment”
https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Press-Release-12th-July-2023
Our 2 July Press Release “Ticket Office closures - Penny wise, Pound foolish”: www.railfuture.org.uk/Press-release-2nd-July-2023
Website article on fares reform: www.railfuture.org.uk/article1884-Fares-after-Covid
Note 1 Modern Railways Expo, 23 November 2022, Milton Keynes
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

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For further information and comment please contact:

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

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