Ticket Offices And Reality

And so we move on to the latest battleground where the Government will attempt to win over a sceptical electorate by deploying selectively presented propaganda, amplified by our free and fearless press without their remaining so-called journalists bothering to check, and with only a few voices from the Trades Union movement, plus industry experts, in opposition.

Will there still be a ticket office here?

As the BBC has reported, “Train firms plan mass closures of ticket offices”. Do go on. “Train companies are pressing ahead with plans to close hundreds of station ticket offices across England over the next three years … Under the proposals, some ticket kiosks would remain in large stations, but elsewhere staff will be on concourses to sell tickets”. But don’t worry. Because.

“A 21-day public consultation has been launched to collect passengers' views”. There was more. “Posters have gone up in stations, inviting the public to take part, after which the government will make the final decision on which offices will close. Currently around three out of every five stations has a ticket office, although some are only staffed part time”. Meaning what?

Meaning those stations typically offer ticket office service from around 0600 hours to somewhere between 1230 and 1430 hours. Those ticket offices may open on Saturdays, but will almost certainly remain closed on Sundays. Moreover, stations that offer that level of service do not have any other station staff. So there won’t be anyone else “on concourses to sell tickets”.

And what of those mythical “24 hour ticket counters”? The ones described by Tom Harwood of Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) thus: “there are some ticket booths around the country that sell about one ticket a week … These need to be manned all the time”. There are no “24 hour ticket counters”. Not one. Not even in London. Not anywhere in the UK.

We know this as the Nationalrail website has the details under “Stations”. So, by way of an example, let’s start at Crewe, as it’s a very good place to start. The ticket office is NOT open 24 hours. It opens before 0600 hours (just after 0800 hours on Sundays) and closes at 2000 hours (1900 hours at weekends). But there are staff on the barriers and platforms.

Typically, platform staff are there to dispatch trains. But take a trip on four of the six lines taking you away from Crewe, and the story is very different. Let’s go towards Liverpool. Winsford and Hartford have ticket offices but they close early afternoon. There are no other station staff: trains self dispatch. Go further, to Acton Bridge, and there are no station staff at all.

Will there be one here?

How about towards Manchester? Sandbach and Holmes Chapel have ticket offices that close early afternoon. They are closed on Sundays, which is often a very busy time for travel. Go further: Goostrey and Chelford are unstaffed. Trains self dispatch. The first station that has ticket office service into the afternoon, and platform staff, is Wilmslow. And towards Stoke on Trent?

Kidsgrove has a ticket office open during the mornings, but again, not on Sunday. Alsager and Longport are unstaffed. Go towards Shrewsbury and there are no station staff, no ticket offices, nothing. But there are six intermediate stations. Only going towards Chester or Stafford is the first stop a station with both ticket office and platform staff.

So the idea that there are all these stations with superfluous ticket offices, along with station staff with nothing else to do, is just more right-wing claptrap. The railway has already modernised, indeed, this is a process that has been in train for decades, with reductions in station staff coming hard on the heels of the Beeching Report and the subsequent closures.

The Guardian’s take is “Almost 1,000 offices are believed to be targeted for closure under government proposals to cut costs and ‘modernise’ the railway, although ministers have for months shied away from spelling out the extent of the plans, in the face of concern from their own MPs as well as unions and passenger groups”. And remember the view from Crewe.

All those ticket offices would be part of the closure: maybe even Crewe, Chester, Stafford, Wilmslow, Shrewsbury and other major stations. Then remember how intimidating the labyrinthine ticketing system of Britain’s railways can seem to first time users. The station ticket office welcomes the uninitiated. It eases their journey. Its presence encourages repeat travel.

Remember also that the RMT has warned “A process to shut nearly all of Britain’s railway station ticket offices could begin as early as next week”. A process that will be cheered on by the right-wing press, who either don’t travel by train, or when they do, ticket purchase is one of those occasions when they have chaps to do that sort of thing for them.

The Tories will misinform. Their press pals will lie. The public will suffer. Again.

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