PLANS for mass closures of rail ticket offices should be halted as they go “too far, too fast” and risk leaving disabled passengers excluded, the Commons transport select committee has said.

Tory MP Iain Stewart, who chairs the cross-party group, has written to Rail Minister Huw Merriman raising concerns over the proposals, which could lead to up to 2,300 job losses.

He said: “At a minimum, changes this radical should be carefully piloted in limited areas and evaluated for their effect on all passengers before being rolled out.

“This would allow for the alternative proposals, which at present are too vague, to be properly understood.”

More than 680,000 people responded to a two-month consultation, held over the summer, on the plans to close nearly every ticket office in England.

Mr Stewart added: “The lack of information and analysis made available by operators, the Rail Delivery Group and, especially, the Department for Transport, about the cumulative impact of the proposals on the rail network has been unacceptable.”

This has left campaigners and individuals to do “the considerable detective work of checking whether claims made by operators stack up against the detail of the proposals,” he said, adding that it was also “perplexing” that the proposals had been put forward before plans promised by the Tories to simplify ticketing.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the rail union’s campaigning with passengers’ and disabled people’s groups had led politicians to put pressure on ministers. 

“It is clear, given the record turnout in the public consultation and vital role played by station staff and ticket offices in creating a safe and accessible railway, that the whole closure programme must be halted.”

A spokesman for train drivers’ union Aslef said: “No-one, except the train companies and the Tory government, thinks that ticket offices should be closed.”