Labour needs to do a bit better than complain that proposed rail ticket office closures are being “rushed” (Labour criticises ‘rushed’ plans to shut hundreds of rail ticket offices in England, 4 July). They shouldn’t be happening at all, and this “Beeching of the booking offices” is bad news for passengers as well as staff. Trying to dress up the cuts as being about “modernisation” and offering passengers a better service is nonsense. It’s about cost-cutting.
Not only will disabled passengers suffer, but everyone who values a friendly human face to assist them in planning their journey and buying tickets will lose out.
There are alternatives. In Switzerland, the rail company SBB has repurposed ticket offices so they offer a wider range of products. Why not here? A shop that sells only one product (tickets) is perhaps not a good idea.
How about some of that private sector entrepreneurial flair we were promised at privatisation, with ticket offices becoming more like petrol stations, offering a wide range of goods and services – but keeping the core facility.
Prof Paul Salveson
(Former train guard), Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria
• I dread the closure of ticket offices (Plans for mass closure of railway ticket offices in England confirmed, 5 July). Recently, I tried to order a senior railcard online – I am very internet-savvy. The site would not accept my birthdate as valid (this has also happened to someone else I know). It wanted a mobile phone number – which I do not have.
When customer service replied to my query some days later, it referred to the disability card I had sought – the wrong card. So I called in at the ticket office in Didcot, where an amiable official handed me a simple form which took two minutes, if that, to fill in. Job done. It is time the railways were run as a subsidised public service again, not for the profit of a few.
Jane Card
Harwell, Oxfordshire
• My solitary long-distance rail journey this year illustrates the folly of government plans to shut hundreds of ticket offices. The ticket machine at my departure station couldn’t dispense my ticket because I didn’t have the credit card that had paid for it. It was not a credit card, but a corporate account managed by a third-party agency. I pressed the contact button on the machine and the faint, crackly voice assured me she was unable to help in any way. The ticket office was just opening and the person on duty saved the day for me.
On my return, I arrived at Birmingham New Street with a few minutes to spare. Several trains were departing at a very similar time and the display gave the destination, but not the stops along the way. My train could have been one of three – but which one? No one at the ticket barrier knew – this was only known to ticket office staff, who provided exactly the information I needed. “The industry” would have us believe that it’s better to have customer support people roaming the station instead, but as I discovered, the ticket office is the only place where you can be sure of finding someone to help you.
As I headed home, someone worked their way through the carriage asking passengers if they would complete a survey about their perceptions of the railway network. Mine focused on the nerve-shredding uncertainty of getting on a train which is not covered by the type of ticket I bought and the sense of always being ripped off. Now, thanks to the Department for Transport, I’ll have two further worries – that I can’t even get my ticket or find my train.
Trevor Lawson
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
• Your article refers to “public consultations” on ticket office closures. Why does nobody call out the complete farce of “public consultations”? This process may be a legal requirement, but I can’t think of a single decision that has ever been changed through this process.
There are hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of examples where a large majority of respondents have voted against the proposal in question and it has always gone ahead anyway. A decision has been taken to close thousands of railway ticket offices and that is what will happen regardless of the “consultation”. This sham democracy is what alienates the vast majority of non-voters – they see it for the charade it is.
Philip Clayton
London
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