Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Brakes put on some office hours
Ticket office opening hours at a number of Lanarkshire’s railway stations are set to reduce to mornings or early rush hours only under new proposals now under consultation.
Others on the county’s rail network would see their current lengthy hours reduced to close earlier in the evening, in response to declining in-person ticket purchases following the introduction of vending machines and mobile apps.
Scotrail say there will be no redundancies or service reductions as a result of the move – intended to “better meet the needs” of passengers – and that staff would be redeployed into mobile roles including assisting at busier stations during peak periods, checking tickets at barriers on on trains and leading wider community initiatives.
Blairhill station in Coatbridge, which currently has a ticket office open until 8.30pm, would in future operate only for the morning rush-hour from Mondays to Thursdays from 6.30am to 10.15am; while it would be open until mid-afternoon on Fridays and Saturdays.
Similar reductions are proposed at Coatbridge Sunnyside, which currently opens between 7.30pm and 10pm but would instead now shut at lunchtime for most of the week and then earlier in the evenings on Friday and Saturdays.
Airdrie, which currently has the longest ticket office hours in Lanarkshire at nearly 19 hours per day, is now proposed to close at 7pm six days per week and at 5pm on Sunday instead of its existing midnight closing time.
The Lanarkshire stations are among 120 to be impacted across Scotland; with Scotrail saying ticket office hours have not been updated in more than three decades and that the proposals are part of a wider review of “all customer-facing functions as it looks to transform the railway following the impact of the pandemic”.
Head of customer operations Phil Campbell said: “It’s important we keep up with the changing habits of customers; with more than a 50 per cent drop in the use of ticket offices, heightened by the pandemic, we want to do everything we can to make sure everyone has a hassle-free journey.
“Nobody will lose their job as a result of these changes – rather being about cutting jobs, this is about adding value for our staff and customers.
“Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking to customers, staff and stakeholders about the improvements they can expect to see and experience as they travel around Scotland’s railway.”
The rail operator says with vending machines and online channels now accounting for 44 per cent of sales while ticket office usage had halved in the past decade, “staff are not engaging with customers as often as we would like and many stations are no longer busy enough to have staff in a ticket office when they can be out helping [passengers]”.
Officials expect introducing the changes reduce fare fraud and ticketless travel, introduce “new family-friendly working hours”, reduce anti-social behaviour and save more than 75 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year through heating and lighting reductions.
Launching the 12-week consultation online, Scotrail say: “While some aspects of the travelling patterns of customers will return, others will never be the same, and the review will ensure the best possible service is provided to those using our services and stations.
“We are not conducting this exercise to reduce staff numbers and cut costs – this is about using the valuable resources we have in the best way to get the greatest benefit for our customers. It is important that the right balance is achieved by having staff deployed in the right place at the right time.”
Public consultation is being conducted by independent watchdog Transport Focus; whose stakeholder manager Robert Samson said: “We will be considering comments from passengers on the changes to inform our response.
“It’s important for people to have their say and we urge people to look at Scotrail’s proposals and provide us with comments.”