Ticket Office closures no longer going ahead

[SuperLuke2334]

The RMT Union have made the following post on their Facebook page this morning.. If this has already been posted elsewhere then I do apologise!

This morning, the transport watchdogs will give their verdict on the future of ticket offices.
This morning, the technology that the Government and Train Operators insist can replace ticket offices has stopped working!!
#SaveTicketOffices

Mod Note: For the Transport Focus response please see this page on their website for the London TravelWatch responses please see this page on their website. A copy of the main response documents from both organisations is available attached to this post later in the thread in the event that at some point in the future the documents are taken down from their websites. .

 

[brad465]

U-turn incoming it seems:

Plans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped

The government tells train firms to ditch the controversial closures, sparking anger from rail bosses.

www.bbc.co.uk

Plans to close hundreds of railway ticket offices in England are set to be cancelled, a rail industry source has told the BBC.
An announcement is expected shortly from the Department for Transport.
The plans, which were put forward by train companies in a move to cut costs, sparked concern from unions and disability groups.
Operators argued only 12% of tickets are now bought at station kiosks.

 

[glasgowniteowl]

BBC reporting that there's been a u turn and closures not going ahead

 

[ScottGallagher]

Set to be cancelled according to the BBC

Plans to close rail ticket offices in England scrapped

The government tells train firms to ditch the controversial closures, sparking anger from rail bosses.

www.bbc.co.uk

To quote a small portion...

However, a source told the BBC rail bosses were "furious", saying the original plans had been approved by the Department for Transport

Some bosses may be more furious than others, there was no joined up thinking, how you can have a situation where Barrow In Furness is kept (not that it deserves to close) over London Euston was odd to say the least.

 

[Blindtraveler]

My screen reader does not interpret these images unfortunately but am I to assume that there's some kind of mass outage of ticket vending machines and or on train systems used by conductors or ticket inspectors

 

[londonbridge]

Just had BBC News alert:

U-turn on rail ticket office closures expected https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67263931

Plans to close hundreds of railway ticket offices in England are set to be cancelled, a rail industry source has told the BBC.

An announcement is expected shortly from the Department for Transport.

 

[brad465]

Also Christian Wolmar tweeted last night that a huge climbdown was expected:

https://twitter.com/christianwolmar/status/1719065038911131813

Watch out for government ticket office climbdown when consultation results announced later this week

 

[1D54]

Last week we had TfL Travel Cards and now this! WOW.

 

[KM1991]

This government is a pathetic joke. What a waste of everyone’s time, deliberately sabotaging industrial relations and staff morale.

Time for Mark Harper to resign and time for the DFT to move aside and finally put an end to the strikes by putting forward a genuine pay deal.

 

[thelongestroad]

My screen reader does not interpret these images unfortunately but am I to assume that there's some kind of mass outage of ticket vending machines and or on train systems used by conductors or ticket inspectors

Yes, one from the trainline reads:

"We’re experiencing technical difficulties on our app and website which means some customers may be unable to search for or book rail and coach journeys. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause however please be assured we’re working hard to fix it."

The other, from Greater Anglia reads something similar.

 

[SteveM70]

Confirmed dead in the water, although the quote from Harper is a laughable attempt to cast himself as the hero.

“The government has asked the train operators to withdraw these proposals”

 

[Sultan]

Great news.

Can't help thinking the outage wasn't co-incidental though, just in case the announcement was different.

 

[75A]

So, scrapping the scrap plan.

 

[railfan99]

In the end, how many signed a physical or e-petition to keep the ticket offices open?

When in England in September 2023, I thought it was '550,000'.

 

[MikeWM]

Look to see what else they try to sneak through while we're distracted by the good news...

But yes, obviously very good news

 

[Cach17]

Last time I was at my local (staffed) station the single ticket machine was out of service, not to mention there are still people out there who don't have a smartphone. Ticket office closures help nobody.

Glad to hear the planned cuts are dead. Thankfully it seems this government's disdain for railways has at least some bounds.

 

[Ashley Hill]

But will this stop the TOCS actually carrying out their own proposed closures?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Glad to hear the planned cuts are dead. Thankfully it seems this government's disdain for railways has at least some bounds.

Not sure what they'll come up with instead though. "We've agreed to withdraw this, but to fund its retention we'll need to increase fares instead"?

The annoying thing from my point of view is that if these proposals had actually been sensible (e.g. not closing booking offices at major London termini) they'd probably have got through and genuinely saved some money without any compulsory redundancies. Northern's proposals seemed borderline sensible, but others like Avanti's closure of everything were just nonsensical, and no thought was given to moving booking offices between TOCs.

 

[mrcheek]

This government is a pathetic joke. What a waste of everyone’s time, deliberately sabotaging industrial relations and staff morale.

Time for Mark Harper to resign and time for the DFT to move aside and finally put an end to the strikes by putting forward a genuine pay deal.

yes, disgusting that a government should actually listen to other people's viewpoints on a matter, and change their policy accordingly. In future, lets all government always presses on regardless

 

[75A]

But will this stop the TOCS actually carrying out their own proposed closures?

Good question.

 

[winks]

Words fail me regarding this Govt, they really do. All the nonsense from the RDG and Mr Harper only just a few weeks ago saying they wanted to get staff out from behind the glass screens .

What an utter shambles and no doubt leaves Ticket Office staff left wondering what the hell is going on.

 

[thelongestroad]

But will this stop the TOCS actually carrying out their own proposed closures?

Given this was the governments idea all along, are any TOCs actually proposing anything? They'd probably need DFT permission anyway.

 

[CompactDstrxion]

yes, disgusting that a government should actually listen to other people's viewpoints on a matter, and change their policy accordingly. In future, lets all government always presses on regardless

The Government should be accepting its share of responsibility for the proposals that is is now cancelling. Which is the lion's share. Instead they are blaming the TOCs.

 

[Brush 4]

Watch for quiet closures by stealth, reported locally but each one unknown to the rest of the country. Like the mine closures one by one after the strike of 84/85, although environmental issues would have closed them in later decades anyway.

 

[Failed Unit]

Given this was the governments idea all along, are any TOCs actually proposing anything? They'd probably need DFT permission anyway.

I suspect some smaller ticket offices possibly - but only very low numbers. Although I suspect they are the ones that are closed when staff are short (with the staff going to the busier stations) so it will be single figures. As we know many ticket offices are only open in the morning at the smaller stations, which tend to be the first not to open at all should the TOC be short of staff.

However you considering the likes of London Euston were up for discussion we won't see that again. But we may see places like Brookmans Park quitely close (Just to annoy the local MP )

 

[Agent_Squash]

The annoying thing from my point of view is that if these proposals had actually been sensible (e.g. not closing booking offices at major London termini) they'd probably have got through and genuinely saved some money without any compulsory redundancies. Northern's proposals seemed borderline sensible, but others like Avanti's closure of everything were just nonsensical, and no thought was given to moving booking offices between TOCs.

Wasn't Avanti's proposal largely based around the fact they have tablet based TIS - so the only change is the loss of the physical ticket office and reduced hours?

 

[physics34]

In the end, how many signed a physical or e-petition to keep the ticket offices open?

When in England in September 2023, I thought it was '550,000'.

Got to 750,000 i believe

 

[bramling]

yes, disgusting that a government should actually listen to other people's viewpoints on a matter, and change their policy accordingly. In future, lets all government always presses on regardless

Which is fine, except this misjudgement has alienated a significant group of staff. Just like this government have managed to do with a number of their other bull-in-a-china-shop ideas, TFL pensions being one of them. One has to seriously wonder whether the intention was simply to upset staff, and question what the motives might be behind that. I haven't forgotten the number of times railway staff were mentioned in Liz Truss's second and final PMQs.

 

[Mawkie]

But will this stop the TOCS actually carrying out their own proposed closures?

Well, the latest email sent to staff from the GTR Customer Services Director (sent this morning) strongly suggests they are looking at other ways of implementing changes without actually closing ticket offices - for example, their mad plan to make everyone multi-functional station hosts.

So I doubt this is actually the end of the matter as far as the TOCs are concerned.

 

[01d-and]

Good news for once. All we need now is for the 'advertised' trains to actually run.