► Most station ticket offices in England are set to be axed
► Union claims redundancy notices have been issued
► Government accused of ‘ducking and diving’ from scrutiny

Consultations over proposals to close ticket offices at all but the largest stations have been launched. They will run for 21 days.

The Rail Delivery Group said: ‘The proposals would help bring station retailing up to date from the mid 90s, when the rules on how to sell tickets were set and before the invention of the smartphone. Back then, 82 per cent of all tickets were sold at ticket offices, compared to just 12 per cent on average today, a downward trend which accelerated during the pandemic.’

It continued that the proposals were ‘being launched against the backdrop of long-running industrial action by rail unions RMT and ASLEF over changes necessary to bring the railway up to date and make it sustainable in the long term, with revenue continuing to languish at 30 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. As RMT talks stalled due to their refusal to put a pay and jobs guarantee offer to its membership, train companies must now move ahead with essential reforms to bring the industry in line with the modern retailing, while maintaining valuable staff contact for customers.’

Industrial unrest began more than a year ago. ASLEF is staging an overtime ban at most English train operators this week, and the RMT has called three 24-hour walkouts later this month.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘The decision to close up to 1,000 ticket offices and to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff is a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public.

‘Travellers will be forced to rely on apps and remote mobile teams to be available to assist them rather than having trained staff on stations. This is catastrophic for elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers.

‘The arrangements for ticket office opening hours, set out in Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, are the only statutory regulation of station staffing.

‘It is crystal clear that the government and train companies want to tear up this agreement and pave the way for a massive de-staffing of the rail network.

‘Some of the train operators issuing our members with statutory redundancy notices today are cutting two thirds of their workforce.’

The But uncertainty remains over job security, and a union leader has accused the Rail Delivery Group of ‘reneging’ on a deal which was agreed earlier this year.

Speaking on BBC Radio Surrey on 6 July, TSSA interim general secretary Peter Pendle said he had received ‘half a dozen communications from the various train operating companies, South Western Trains and GWR included, issuing Section 188 notices which is the notice you have to give as a first stage to consult on redundancies’.

He also said he was concerned about the prospects for the displaced staff in a few years from now, when consultations about further changes would not be required: ‘They can just do what they want two or three years down the line. Our belief is they’ll just come along and remove those people.

‘At the beginning of the year we were taking industrial action to oppose the closure of ticket offices. We reached an agreement with the Rail Delivery Group and the train operating companies. We said we oppose the changes, but are pragmatic enough to know there are going to be changes so we won’t continue to take industrial action and we will engage with you on how we introduce those changes.

‘That was a deal; that was an agreement we reached. Yesterday I got called into a meeting with the Rail Delivery Group who said: “Sorry, we’re going to renege on this agreement. We’re going to chuck it out of the window, and we’re going to go ahead and make the changes.”

‘How can we trust the Rail Delivery Group and the train operating companies if they can just turn round and renege on an agreement like that overnight, with no notice? Two or three years down the line, you’re going to see those people on stations gone.’

Railnews asked the Rail Delivery Group to respond. It said: ‘The agreement reached with the TSSA in February 2023 were a set of agreed national principles to update the railway for how passengers use it today. However, unfortunately, due to the nature of collective bargaining, the agreement reached with TSSA can’t be progressed for just the TSSA.

‘The RMT leadership has not only refused to put a pay deal to its members which would give all staff a pay rise as well as giving job security guarantees, but they are also holding up pay rises and job security guarantees for hundreds of TSSA members. Our offer remains on the table should the RMT wish to continue national discussions so we can secure a thriving long-term future for the railways.’

Ministers say they want to make station staff ‘more visible and accessible’, but Labour shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: ‘Despite the concerns of vulnerable passengers, Conservative ministers are ducking and diving from scrutiny.

‘The Conservatives should come clean, and give passengers the answers they deserve.

‘Railroading this decision in just three weeks, without proper consideration for staff and vulnerable passengers, only risks exacerbating the managed decline of the rail network.’

Passenger watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch are inviting responses to the plan, saying: ‘We will use this feedback to formally respond to the rail industry about the proposals.’

Transport Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said: ‘It’s important for people to have their say. We urge passengers to look at the proposals and tell us what the ticket office changes might mean for them. Transport Focus will make sure passengers’ views are heard.

‘It is a regulatory requirement as part of this process that Transport Focus and passengers are consulted. Transport Focus will review the impact of the proposed changes and passenger comments received before responding to train operator proposals.’ 

The proposals will technically come from individual train operators, but the government has been collecting revenue and paying operators’ costs since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rail minister Huw Merriman told the Commons on 29 June that ‘together with the industry we want to modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to more visible and accessible roles around the station. Staff will be better placed to assist passengers who need additional support and to provide face-to-face help in customer focused roles. To propose any changes to the opening hours, or the closure of ticket offices, train operating companies must follow the process set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement.’

Which ticket offices might stay open?

Avanti West Coast said its offices at some larger stations would be kept ‘short-term’ for passengers with complicated ticket queries which cannot be resolved on line or at a ticket machine. It said these stations are those managed by Network Rail at London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Glasgow Central, where AWC runs the ticket offices, and also Preston and Carlisle.

c2c All 25 offices are ‘at risk of closure’ except London Fenchurch Street, Benfleet, Basildon, Grays and Southend Central. These offices continue, but opening hours will change.

Chiltern Railways plans to close all its ticket offices. 

East Midlands Railway will close its offices at Alfreton, Beeston, Boston, Burton-on-Trent, Chesterfield, Corby, East Midlands Parkway, Hinckley, Kettering, Kidsgrove, Long Eaton, Loughborough, Mansfield, Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Narborough, Newark Castle, Oakham, Skegness, Sleaford, Spalding, Stamford (Lincs) and Wellingborough. Ticket offices will continue to be provided at Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, London St Pancras International, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Govia Thameslink Railway (Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink) plans to close all ticket offices apart from Gatwick Airport.

Greater Anglia plans to open Customer Information Centres at London Liverpool Street, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Norwich, Stansted Airport and Cambridge. Of the remaining 47 stations, some would have changes to staffing hours, but no presently staffed station will become unstaffed.

Great Western Railway is proposing to close all its ticket offices by the end of next year, including London Paddington. It has already closed summer-only ticket windows at Looe, Newquay and St Ives.

LNER said it proposed to maintain ticket offices at Edinburgh, Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Peterborough and London King’s Cross, ‘which will continue to offer the same range of products and opening times’.

Northern is proposing to close 131 ticket offices and change the opening hours at 18. It also operates a further 318 stations which do not have ticket offices. Stations which would retain ticket offices are Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn, Blackpool North, Bolton, Bradford Interchange, Glossop, Harrogate, Hartlepool, Leeds, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Victoria, Rochdale, St Helens Central, Salford Crescent, Skipton, Warrington Central and Wigan Wallgate. Exceptionally, Hartlepool is presently closed on Sundays, but would open under the new proposals. The opening hours at the other 17 offices will mostly be reduced.  

Southeastern said it serves 180 stations, and runs 142 ticket offices. It is proposing to open Travel Centres at its 14 busiest stations (Ashford International, Bromley South, Canterbury West, Dartford, Dover Priory, Hastings, London Bridge, London Charing Cross, London St Pancras International, London Victoria, Margate, Rochester, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge). All other offices will close, but staff will return to 14 stations which are currently unstaffed because of vacancies.

South Western Railway is planning to close all its ticket offices.

TransPennine Express plans to close the ticket offices at 14 of the 16 staffed stations it operates. Ticket offices will remain open at Huddersfield and Manchester Airport.

West Midlands Trains (London NorthWestern and West Midlands Railway) said ‘all ticket offices in their current form would close over the next three years’ but that it would introduce a number of ‘hub stations’ offering ‘enhanced retail facilities and customer support’. The ‘hubs’ are proposed at Birmingham Snow Hill, Milton Keynes Central, Northampton, Nuneaton, Sutton Coldfield, University, Walsall, Watford Junction, Wolverhampton and Worcester Foregate Street.

Note: CrossCountry and the open access operators Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo.do not manage any stations.