Council publishes objection to railway ticket office changes

Telford & Wrekin Council has published its response to the West Midlands Railway consultation on proposals to change the way ticket offices operate at rail stations across the borough.

The consultation closed last week amid concerns from across the country around accessibility, safety and security, issues with ticket machines and how stations would be staffed in the future. Transport watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch are now reviewing the feedback they have received across 680,000 responses.

Under the current proposals, staffed ticket offices at Telford Central and Wellington would close and be replaced with ‘mobile customer service teams’.

The council’s response urges West Midlands Railway to give more detail on how the proposed changes would work safely and without a deterioration of customer service. It also highlights that proposals are likely to disproportionately affect people with certain protected characteristics, particularly older people or those with a disability, as well as those people who do not have a smart phone or internet access, or use cash rather than cards to make purchases.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Shaun Davies (Labour) said: “While we recognise the way passengers buy train tickets has changed in recent years, and wider reform to railway operation and ticketing is needed, we cannot support the proposed changes to close ticket Offices at Telford Central and Wellington, and the proposal to replace the ticket offices at these stations with a mobile customer service team.

“We strongly advocate for a further detailed national engagement on this, including detailed assessments of the impact on those that rely on traditional ticket offices to access the railway.

“The proposals present themselves as providing no loss in customer service but as an enhancement to the current provision. It is difficult to see how the proposed mobile customer service team can provide this without significant investment and additional staff.”

No further details on what happens next have been published by West Midlands Rail but it is understood that transport watchdogs will report back on their findings to train operators by 31 October and that their findings will be published online.