Minister misleads MPs over impact of ticket office closures

The rail minister has refused to apologise after misleading MPs about the impact of government-backed plans to close hundreds of ticket offices.

Huw Merriman twice told the Commons last week (pictured) that “no currently staffed stations will be unstaffed” as a result of the closures, which are focused on England.

But public consultation documents issued by all 13 train companies planning closures show that is not true.

Analysis by Disability News Service of the consultation documents (see separate story) shows that at least three train companies will move some stations from being staffed part-time to relying on mobile teams that cover a group of local stations.

Disabled activist Doug Paulley said comments that the closures were simply about redeploying staff – made by Merriman and the rail industry – were “just so disingenuous”.

He said: “They say it’s about being more customer-focused. No, it’s not.”

He said this week that legal action over the closures was increasingly likely.

Paulley’s own calculations show Northern’s staffed station hours will decrease by three-fifths under its proposals, from 10,793 to 4,238 staffed station hours per week, with nearly all the cuts at weekends and evenings.

Some stations run by East Midlands Railway will in future have to rely on “mobile staff” when their ticket offices close.

Alfreton currently has a ticket office open more than eight hours a day every day of the week, but in future it will have to rely on “daily visits from mobile staff”.

Two other East Midlands stations, Mansfield and Narborough, currently have ticket offices open six days a week for more than six hours a day, but in future will have to rely on “weekly visits from mobile staff”.

Closures to ticket offices in stations run by Greater Anglia will see similar changes to some stations, with Braintree and Rochford currently having a ticket office open one day a week, but both in future having to rely on “regular visits by our mobile team”.

And some stations run by West Midlands Railway – including Bournville, Longbridge and Stratford-upon-Avon – will move from having ticket offices open at least 11 hours a day during the week to relying in future on staff from its “new mobile teams” being deployed “on a flexible basis to undertake customer service, passenger assistance, safety and general upkeep duties”.

A Department for Transport spokesperson refused to comment on the minister misleading MPs about the closures.

Instead, he claimed the “industry-led consultations are about enhancing the role of station workers and getting staff out from behind ticket office screens and into more active, customer-facing roles that will allow them to better support all passengers”.

He also claimed that DfT had been “consistently honest” about “the need for our railways to modernise if they are going to survive”.

To respond to the consultations launched by individual train companies, passengers should contact the independent transport user watchdog Transport Focus, or London TravelWatch in London. The consultation period lasts just 21 days (until 26 July).

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