Tories ditch plans to shut railway station ticket offices in huge win for Mirror
Tory-backed plans to shut almost every railway station ticket office in England have been dropped in a huge victory for the Mirror. Campaigners rejoiced today as the Government announced it was abandoning the overhaul following an outcry from passengers.
Train firms had drawn up proposals to shut ticket counters at 974 railway stations across England. Conservative ministers including Rishi Sunak had backed the closures, but they were forced into a humiliating U-turn after an unprecedented revolt.
The passenger watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch this morning said they believed shutting tickets offices would be a mistake after 750,000 people had their say on their plans. It was the biggest ever response to a public consultation.
The Mirror has been leading efforts to stop the closures - which would have particularly hit the elderly, vulnerable and disabled - with our Save Our Ticket Offices campaign. Thousands of readers took part in an online rally in August urging the Government to back down.
Paralympics legend Baroness Grey-Thompson, who campaigned against the closures, said: “I’m delighted that the government has listened to the huge public response. Ticket offices are an important part of how people are able to travel and for many disabled people it is the difference of being able to travel or not.
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“There are still many issues to resolve around accessibility and how disabled people are able to access the railway network in the same way as those who are not disabled. I hope this is the start of a positive conversation about how we can progress to level boarding for all.”
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who was part of a group of Labour mayors who threatened legal action if the plans were not dropped, described the U-turn as a “relief”. He said: “The closures would have had a devastating effect on lots of people and places. Many of these ticket offices are at the heart of their communities.The Government is trying to put our railways into managed decline and they cannot be allowed to succeed.
“It took a major campaign by the Daily Mirror and the threat of legal action from the country’s metro mayors to halt this. That should never have had to be the case as there was no justification for these proposals. The Government got this spectacularly wrong.”
Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: "These shambolic plans have fallen apart under scrutiny. The government failed to come clean on the impact of these proposals for accessibility and job security and now have been forced into a humiliating climb down, disowning the very proposals ministers championed from the start. Tory ministers have serious questions to answer on their colossal waste of taxpayers' money after spending months on these flawed proposals. This is yet another example of how this broken government’s time is up.”
A Guide Dogs spokesman said: “Ticket offices and frontline rail staff play an essential role in making train travel possible for so many people, especially people with a vision impairment... Guide Dogs welcomes this decision, which has come after an unprecedented public outcry."
Train firms had themselves admitted passengers will be put at risk of being swindled by crooks and railway stations made to feel less safe by shutting ticket offices.
Following the public consultation, the passenger watchdogs yesterday said they did not believe the closure plan would work in practice. Anthony Smith, chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Some train companies were unable to convince us about their ability to sell a full range of tickets, handle cash payments and avoid excessive queues at ticket machines. Passengers must be confident they can get help when needed and buy the right ticket in time for the right train.”
Michael Roberts, Chief Executive of London TravelWatch, said: "The idea of closing ticket offices to locate staff nearer to the passengers may sound attractive, but it has proved highly controversial with the public... Despite improving on their original proposals, we don’t think the train companies have gone far enough to meet our concerns and those of the public."
In his announcement today, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “The proposals that have resulted from this process do not meet the high thresholds set by ministers, and so the Government has asked train operators to withdraw their proposals." The decision to ditch the closures is an embarrassing climbdown for the Government. Mr Harper publicly defended the proposals just eight days ago when he said they would “reflect how people buy tickets now”.
Mr Sunak last month insisted 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".
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A rail industry source said the Government’s handling of the plans had been a “clusterf***”. “This is proper in office but not in power stuff,” they added.
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