With the rail industry eager to rush this through, the consultation on these changes is already up and running and Wednesday 26th July is the deadline to get your comments in. If you have not done so already, I would urge you to have your say by emailing London TravelWatch and encourage others to do so. The more objections we submit, the more pressure there will be on the Government to reconsider these proposals and the more ammunition we have to push back against them. You’ll find more information about how to submit over on the TravelWatch website and there is a template letter you can use over at the Transport for All campaign website.
Closing station ticket offices is a cost-cutting exercise that puts profits before passengers. With rail fares rising at twice the rate of wages since 2010, we are paying more and more for less and less of a service.
Our train station ticket offices are so much more than a place to purchase tickets, acting as a central point of contact for customers who may otherwise struggle to locate staff, supporting passengers who cannot use machines, providing a place of safety for children separated from parents, and offering ticketing advice to give people maximum savings and prevent mis-booked tickets.
Disability charities are vocally opposing these changes, which would further impede disabled people’s right to accessible travel. Transport for All, which runs the #NotJustTheTicket campaign, is backed by over a dozen charities supporting deaf people, people with visual impairment or blindness and other disabled people in opposing these closures. They rightly point out that train station ticket offices and ticket office staff are the first point of contact for disabled passengers seeking assisted travel.
The Government claims it is simply a matter of moving staff from out behind the glass into the main station. But train operators have reportedly issued Section 188 notices to inform staff that their jobs are at risk and the government is refusing to offer any guarantees that jobs will be protected. With train companies already frequently failing to deliver assisted travel, it is very difficult to see how further cuts to staffing would improve accessibility – quite the opposite.
If you haven’t already, I’d also encourage you to sign my petition to stop local ticket office closures and share this in your local networks. Let’s save Streatham’s station ticket offices and keep our railways safe and accessible for everyone who travels on them.
