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PEOPLE power has saved railway ticket offices as the Tories were forced to scrap planned closures in a humiliating U-turn today.
Unions, commuters, pensioner and disability campaigners hailed the “bittersweet” victory for their Save Our Ticket Offices campaign as Transport Secretary Mark Harper told rail operators their proposals do not meet “the high thresholds set by ministers.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in September suggested closing ticket offices was “the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers” as “only one in 10 tickets are sold currently in ticket offices.” The plans involved ticket offices at 974 stations out of 1,007 in England, and none in Scotland or Wales.
But after more than 750,000 responses to a consultation overwhelming rejected the plans, watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch announced today that they opposed every single planned closure due to issues such as the impact on accessibility.
Transport Focus chief Anthony Smith said there were serious concerns over issues including how so-called welcome points would work, how operators would sell a full range of tickets and how excessive queues at ticket machines would be avoided.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch hailed the resounding victory for the union’s campaign and called for an urgent summit to agree a different way forward for the rail network “that puts passengers before profit.”
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “The consultation process has demonstrated that no-one— except the train companies and the Tories — thinks station ticket offices should be closed.”
TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “It shows the power of our union and of the great British public in making sure these planned closures have now reached the end of the line.”
National Pensioners’ Convention general secretary Jan Shortt called for a consensus from passengers, staff and rail providers for the future of rail travel.
Disabled People Against Cuts founder Linda Burnip said: “This is really good news for all travellers, but especially for disabled people who would have been very negatively affected. It also shows that when we fight we can win.”
Katie Pennick, campaigns manager at accessibility charity Transport for All, said the outcome was bittersweet as the “disastrous and discriminatory proposals should never have been put forward.”
The plans were brought forward by train operators in July with support from the government, which has put pressure on the sector to cut costs.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh MP said: “These shambolic plans have fallen apart under scrutiny.
“A Labour government would end the chaos on our railways by delivering a publicly owned and unified rail network, bringing contracts into public ownership as they expire, with every decision tested against delivering for the passenger.”
