CONTROVERSIAL plans to close railway ticket offices across the country could be debated in Parliament after a petition gained more than 100,000 signatures.
In July, the Rail Delivery Group unveiled proposals that could lead to nearly all ticket offices being shut, which underwent a public consultation until September 1.
Train operators say “fewer people than ever” are using ticket offices thanks to the internet and the plans would see staff move onto stations and concourses, where they would be able to provide more face-to-face support for passengers.
But the plans have faced opposition from rail users and politicians, including Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, who believes the plans would adversely affect people without home computers and internet access.
Documents published by Great Western Railway show Bridgwater could lose its ticket office between October 2023 and June 2024 if the plans go ahead.
The documents also reveal that 20.1 per cent of tickets sold for journeys from Bridgwater were bought at ticket offices, compared to 69 per cent that were purchased online and 10.9 per cent bought at the station's vending machine.
Now, the issue could be brought to the House of Commons for a debate after the online petition, started by Elizabeth Garnsey, passed the signatures threshold.
The petition says: “We want the government to require train operators keep ticket offices and platform staff at train stations, to help maintain health and safety standards and customer information.
“Train companies provide an important public service, and some are subsidised by the government, and should be required to maintain standards.”
Once a petition gets more than 10,000 signatures, the government must issue a response.
In July, a Department of Transport spokesperson said: “There has been a significant shift in the way passengers purchase tickets, with just one in every ten transactions taking place at a ticket office in 2022/23, down from one in three a decade earlier.
“99 per cent of all transactions made at ticket offices last year could be made at TVMs (ticket vending machines) or online.
“Together with the rail industry, we want to improve and modernise the experience for passengers by moving staff out from behind the ticket office screens to provide more help and advice in customer-focused roles.
“We have been clear that no currently staffed station will become unstaffed as a result of this reform.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was asked about the plans during his trip to India yesterday (September 10).
He said: “It’s right that our railway network is modernised and is put on a sustainable footing.
“That’s the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers and recognises the fact that I think only one in 10 tickets are sold currently in ticket offices.
“But this is actually fundamentally, as far as I understand it, about getting people out of ticket offices on to platforms and in stations where they can help people in different ways, which is where the help is required.
“Those are exactly all the things that we’ll be discussing in the consultation and it wouldn’t be right for me to pre-empt the response or what the conclusions are.”
The government's website says the petition has been waiting four days for a debate date to be set.
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