Tory transport boss defends plan to shut hundreds of rail station ticket offices

01 October 2023 , 17:36

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Protesters and the Daily Mirror are fighting the plans (Image: Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)

Transport Secretary Mark Harper tonight defended plans to close nearly 1,000 railway station ticket offices. The Cabinet Minister backed moves to shut front counters at 974 locations across the network.

Speaking at the Tory Party conference in Manchester, he told a Railway Industry Association fringe meeting: “We are supporting what the industry is doing on the ticket office move, where we want to get people out of ticket offices - where most people don’t buy tickets - but into stations to be better able to support customers, particularly those customers who don’t use the railway as often, so they can have a better customer experience. I want it to be a transport mode of choice in the future.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper was speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester (James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock)

Rail chiefs, backed by ministers, claim ticket offices are no longer needed because most passengers buy online, via smartphone apps or at station machines. They say staff will be switched to concourses and platforms - making them more accessible to passengers. The Mirror is fighting to Save Our Ticket Offices and campaigners say the plans will discriminate against the disabled and elderly, who are less likely to book over the internet or using apps - meaning they will be forced off trains and more likely to be confined to their homes.

Mr Harper claimed he was “very keen that we protect disabled people’s access to the railway”. He added: “Part of what the industry is trying to do is reflect the fact that over the last 10 years the number of people buying tickets through ticket offices has fallen enormously. There has been very little change to resourcing of that.”

Unions fear rail companies will strip workers out of stations, leaving passengers unable to find information and more vulnerable to crime. But Mr Harper denied staff would be removed from stations which currently have them. “We don’t want to see any station that’s currently staffed become unstaffed,” he told Tory activists and industry experts.

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Ben Glaze