Mayors initiate legal process with up to seven-day warning to rail companies to abandon ticket office closures consultation

Mayors across England have now written to train operators with an up to seven-day warning, setting out the legal action they will take if a consultation to close the majority of rail tickets offices and drastically cut staff available to support passengers across the country, is not halted.

On 5 July, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) announced, without warning, that the public would have just 21 days to have their say on plans to close almost all of the 1,007 remaining ticket offices in the country.
 

Read more: Littleborough Station's ticket office facing closure under new plans to close most ticket offices in EnglandPublished: 06 July 2023

Mayors from across England came together on Tuesday 18 July to raise their concerns about the plans and to announce that they were taking legal advice on challenging rail operators – TransPennine Express, Northern Trains Ltd, LNER, EMR, Thameslink, Greater Anglia and Avanti – as they say the type of consultation they are using is ‘inappropriate for changes of this scale’, and is ‘being conducted in a chaotic manner’.

The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham; mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin; mayor of Liverpool city-region, Steve Rotheram and the mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard have sent pre-action protocol letters to each of the above operators, setting out their course of legal action if the consultation is not halted.

The letters set out the requirements under Section 29 of the Railway Act 2005, a very clear and detailed process which must be followed if a train operating company proposes to close a station or any part of a station. That process starts with an assessment and notification to the Secretary of State for Transport.

If the Secretary of State allows the proposal, a 12-week consultation period must follow before a decision is made.

The current plans would impact the most vulnerable in society, including disabled and older people, with many ticket machines at train stations outside of London not being accessible as they are cashless.

Of the 467 northern rail stations, 449 have cashless ticket machines.

As part of their case for closures, the RDG have stated that 12 per cent of rail ticket transactions are done at ticket offices – which is in reality still 60 million ticket sales per year.

In Greater Manchester, 16 per cent of tickets are sold from ticket offices, a higher figure than the national average.

This disparity is also reflected in the fact that nationally, one in every eight tickets is sold at a ticket office whereas the figure across Northern stations is one in every six.

Of the 191 ticket offices in the North, 165 are due to close.

The proposals would also see station staffing reduced by over 250 jobs by Northern Trains alone.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said: “This consultation is shambolic and totally inadequate and our letter sets out how we will challenge it legally if it is not halted and reviewed now.

“The government and train operating companies know what they are doing here, they are trying to dress up staff reductions and cost cutting as ‘improvements to customer service’.  What’s worse is they are trying to railroad this through by way of a chaotic consultation - that is why we have come together with this legal challenge to suspend the process immediately.

“These closures will impact the most vulnerable in our society, including older and disabled people, and to give them just 21 days to feedback when they are less likely to have internet access, is outrageous. It is clear to us that they are not adhering to the law set out in the Railways Act 2005 and we will fight this all the way.

“These plans represent the complete destruction of our rail services. They are trying to close almost every ticket office when services in the north are the most unreliable they have ever been, but prices are still through the roof. It’s almost as if they are trying to drive people away from rail and we are not going to stand for this.”

If the consultation was to be suspended, the Mayors would seek an urgent meeting with Ministers to discuss how reform of the railways can be undertaken to the benefit, and not detriment, of passengers.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “Across all business sectors the way people consume, access and purchase products and services has changed. Rail is no different - only 1 in 6 journeys on Northern services are purchased through a ticket office, this compares to almost half of all journeys in 2018. We need to modernise to meet the changing needs of our customers and we are seeking views from the public on these proposals.

“Along with the rest of the rail industry, Northern is sharing proposals on how we plan to change how we support customers at our stations. These proposals include the creation of a new, more visible customer facing role that will offer a wider range of support across our stations. This new role will mean that the traditional ticket office is no longer required at most staffed Northern stations, except for 18 at hub locations, that will have amended ticket office opening hours."

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, said: "All train operators are complying with the consultation process as set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement. They include proposals which, across the network as a whole, would see more staff on concourses and ticket halls to help passengers than there are today, helping with a whole range of needs, from buying tickets to journey planning and helping with accessibility needs.

"We encourage anyone who wants to find out more to contact their local train company, or submit their views to independent passenger watchdogs Transport Focus or London TravelWatch."

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What is being proposed?

The Rail Delivery Group has revealed proposals that would close all but the busiest station ticket offices. These would still sell a full range of tickets.

Northern has confirmed Rochdale Station’s ticket office is amongst those that will remain open – with reduced hours – but Littleborough’s would face closure with the station only being staffed on a part-time basis between 9am and 1pm from Monday to Saturday.

The Pennines station would be unstaffed on a Sunday.

To view the consultation, please visit Northern’s website: www.northernrailway.co.uk/consultation-2023

If you would like to comment on these proposals as part of this consultation please contact Transport Focus by 11.59pm on 28 July 2023 using the details:

• Email: ticketoffice.Northern@transportfocus.org.uk
• Freepost: RTEH-XAGE-BYKZ, Transport Focus, PO Box 5594, Southend on Sea, SS1 9PZ

If your response relates to a certain station please include the station name in your response.