"We will keep fighting" mayors issue statement following closure of consultation on closure of rail ticket offices

Littleborough station

Mayors across England have issued a joint statement following the end of a consultation on plans to close almost every rail ticket office in the country and they call for "the right thing to be done by stopping the plans now."

The Rail Delivery Group has proposed closing all but the busiest station ticket offices, which 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.

The consultation closed on 1 September after eight-and-a-half weeks.

The statement, on behalf of Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham; Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin; Mayor of Liverpool City-Region, Steve Rotheram, and Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, reads: “The train companies initially tried to push the closure of ticket offices through, under the radar. Together, we made them listen.

“Our legal challenge resulted in the operators extending the consultation process, addressing unfair accessibility issues and producing Equality Impact Assessments which are vital in assessing the plans. This meant that more people were able to have their say on the plans – and may otherwise have remained unheard.

“The law is clear that operators cannot close parts of stations without following the clear procedure set out in the Railways Act 2005. This procedure has still not been followed and the process of our legal challenge with the train firms around this remains ongoing.  

“Closing ticket offices will hit the most vulnerable hardest. At a time when we need more people using the railways, these plans would have the opposite effect.

“All eyes are now on Transport Focus to see how they respond to the hundreds of thousands of responses that we believe they have received. There is still an opportunity here to do the right thing and stop these plans now.

“In the meantime, we stand firm, and we will keep fighting."