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Plans to close most UK railway ticket offices to kick off ‘in weeks’

paulfromcamden

paulfromcamden

Baffled
Story in the Graun this morning.

A process to shut nearly all of Britain’s railway station ticket offices could begin as early as next week, the RMT union has warned.
Almost 1,000 offices are believed to be targeted for closure under government proposals to cut costs and “modernise” the railway, although ministers have for months shied away from spelling out the extent of the plans, in the face of concern from their own MPs as well as unions and passenger groups.
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Unions and campaigners have warned that cutting ticket offices will make it harder for vulnerable passengers and people with disabilities to travel by rail.

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...uk-railway-station-ticket-offices-start-weeks
 
we use the train alot - if the ticket office is open, then i only use it if the queues at the self service machines are too long, which they are frequently
 
I've been travelling round Europe by train and in at least half of Finland there are no customer facing staff at the railway stations. All the Fins know to go online or use the call centre to get info/bookings. It worked fine but felt a bit odd standing in Rovaniemi station reseving a seat on the phone to someone in Helsinki. Our rail network is much more complex but there is no reason why this won't work in smaller ststions and branch lines. Compare that to Spain where just about every sttion is manned but half the booking offices are useless.
We live differently to a decade ago so things move on but I hope the main stations still have full human support.
 
gintonic said:
we use the train alot - if the ticket office is open, then i only use it if the queues at the self service machines are too long, which they are frequently
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Well that's nice. I'm all right Jack.
Try travelling with a wheelchair user. A wheelchair user can't just turn up at the station, buy a ticket and get on the train, they have to:
Arrange, with 24 hours notice, to book assistance at the start, end and change stations (the message may or may not get through).
Book accessible places on the trains. These are often used as luggage dumps, or occupied by people with no reservations.
Pray that if there is a toilet it is clean, working and the corridor to it isn't blocked.
I could go on. Disabled people need the permission of non-disabled people to travel by train in Britain. This proposal to have no staff on stations will only make things worse. Expect legal challenges.
 
vince rocker said:
Try travelling with a wheelchair user. A wheelchair user can't just turn up at the station, buy a ticket and get on the train,
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i have and they can here - i think context and local facilities are of utmost importance. i was referring to my local facilities.
 
billo said:
Great programme on Channel 4 last night with Ben Elton. The amount of money wasted/paid in share holder bonuses is staggering. Several people saying that the old BR was very efficient and now with less money and profits being taken out at every stage of the process it is not a surprise that things are falling apart.
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/ben-elton-the-great-railway-disaster
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And quite a lot of those shareholders are overseas governments who can apparently spot an easy mark a mile away.

Though I'm not sure nationalisation on its own is the answer. My local TOC Southeastern is now run by the DfT (after the previous franchise holder was discovered to have embezzled £25m of taxpayer funding...) - the first thing they did was cut services leading to potentially lethal overcrowding at London Bridge.
 
This is about balance sheets and not people. Such is the world we live in.

As usual I suspect that if there is any disruption passengers will be pitted against railway workers whereas the real cause, the accountants, is something that both passengers and workers need to recognise and point angry words at that, not against each other.

Sadly, we doubt our Labour Party will be willing to take a lead.
 
sideshowbob said:
Here comes a summer of strikes, which ofc I will support.
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Same here, the machines for tickets and car parking are hopeless at our station; they're also positioned in full sun facing South so the primitive screens are almost impossible to read when the sun's out.

On the plus side the parking machine often doesn't recognise my number plate so it won't allow me to pay!

The team in the ticket office are very helpful and don't deserve to lose their jobs.
 
RMT Press Office:

General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "There are rumours circulating online that the DfT plans to announce mass ticket office closures next week.

"The train operating companies and the government must understand that we will vigorously oppose any moves to close ticket offices.

"We will not meekly sit by and allow thousands of jobs to be sacrificed or see disabled and vulnerable passengers left unable to use the railways as a result.

"RMT will bring into effect the full industrial force of the union to stop any plans to close ticket offices, including on our upcoming strike days of July 20, 22 and 29 in the national rail dispute."

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-statement-on-the-future-of-ticket-offices/
 
dweezil said:
they're also positioned in full sun facing South so the primitive screens are almost
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we have one like that - there are 3 more inside, one of which is lowered for accessibility. There is another in an out of the way location. Car works fine.

We have had quite alot of refurb and new build works in recent years.


dweezil said:
The team in the ticket office are very helpful and don't deserve to lose their jobs.
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our ticket office team (there are only two) tell us that they will be reassigned to other operational duties
 
gavreid said:
RMT Press Office:

General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "There are rumours circulating online that the DfT plans to announce mass ticket office closures next week.

"The train operating companies and the government must understand that we will vigorously oppose any moves to close ticket offices.

"We will not meekly sit by and allow thousands of jobs to be sacrificed or see disabled and vulnerable passengers left unable to use the railways as a result.

"RMT will bring into effect the full industrial force of the union to stop any plans to close ticket offices, including on our upcoming strike days of July 20, 22 and 29 in the national rail dispute."

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-statement-on-the-future-of-ticket-offices/
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No doubt Starmer will be fulfilling his pledge to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the union.
 
On Friday afternoon I was travelling from Liverpool Lime St to York, with a pre-booked bicycle. On getting to the station I found that my train was cancelled due to a shortage of staff. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-65996674

I popped into the ticket office & they rebooked myself & the bike on the next available train with no fuss or extra charges. I'd hate to try & do that on a mobile app.

I then had the joy of wrestling my bike into the ridiculous "bike space" where you have to hang it vertically from a hook in a little cupboard. I'm a tall strong bloke & I find this awkward to do.
 
About 3 or more time a month I use the Apsley to Euston train. The guy in the ticket office is the most helpful and friendly customer facing person I know. I would strongly oppose closing ticket offices.
 
Frequently use the ticket office to ask questions , buy tickets and reserve seats especially if your train has been cancelled

Just recently all the ticket machines were broken at new street and needed to use ticket office
 
iu
 
flatpopely said:
About 3 or more time a month I use the Apsley to Euston train. The guy in the ticket office is the most helpful and friendly customer facing person I know. I would strongly oppose closing ticket offices.
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But would you support the strikes?
 
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