Ticket office closures

I don’t know if the RMT is exaggerating employer proposals that ticket offices will close from October (Comment, RAIL 964), but there is a programme of closure by stealth.

Stations as far apart as Newtown and Deal have now lost their ticket offices. Unlike Post Office closures, the rail industry is not required to consult on ticket office closures, thereby avoiding any scrutiny.

Shutting ticket offices contributes to the sense of barren and unwelcoming stations - surely not what the industry needs if it is to attract discretionary rail travellers in place of former season ticket holders.

Ticket machines are touted as solutions. In my experience, they should be avoided.

When beautiful down-town Poppleton’s machine is not out of action through hacking, it shows a marked reluctance to accept senior railcards, and it wasn’t improved by recent ‘upgrades’.

Roger Backhouse, York