Rail ticket office closures would be short sighted, leaving vulnerable passengers in limbo - The Yorkshire Post says

The proposals are a bid to cut costs with revenue falling after the pandemic. But surely for revenues to recover more people need to be encouraged to travel by rail?

Removing rail ticket offices sends the opposite message. It signals that there is little desire to get more people travelling by rail.

The argument that everything is done online and tickets can be purchased through vending machines overlooks the needs of different passengers.

Older passengers haven’t all necessarily made the transition to online and even those people who do purchase tickets online sometimes find that they can get better value by talking to someone at the ticket office. Those with disabilities will also find travelling more daunting if there isn’t a place for them to seek assistance.

The idea that staff wandering around on concourses will be able to fill the role of ticket offices overlooks the importance of knowing exactly where to go to seek assistance.

Given the railway network has been crippled by delays and cancellations, leading to mass confusion, it makes no sense to take away ticket offices.

Even the Commons speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, made an unusual intervention when he corrected Rail Minister Huw Merriman that “the proposal is only to have someone available nine until four”.

The Government needs to shelve these ill-conceived plans before they do further damage to rail travel in this country.