What ticket office closure plans could mean for Greater Manchester’s …

A ticket office will remain open at Manchester Victoria railway station, but Manchester Piccadilly’s has been earmarked to shut under controversial mass closure plans ^[1] across England announced today.

Rail operator Northern has also confirmed plans to close manned ticket offices at 45 stations across Greater Manchester, although they will be retained at six other stations.

Avanti West Coast, which runs services to London Euston from Manchester Piccadilly, confirmed a consultation, which will see phased changes over three years, would apply to 16 stations it manages – including Stockport and Wigan North Western – as well as its ticket offices at Network Rail stations where it is the lead retailer, which include Manchester Piccadilly.

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The ticket office at Piccadilly, however, ‘will remain open short-term for customers who have complicated ticket queries which cannot currently be dealt with online or at a ticket vending machine’, added Avanti. No time-scale for that was given.

Manchester Piccadilly is Manchester’s busiest railway station.

Elsewhere, ticket offices at Bolton, Manchester Victoria, Manchester Oxford Road, Rochdale, Salford Crescent and Wigan Wallgate stations would remain open, said Northern, but they will have reduced opening times.

The operator said ticket offices at a total of 18 stations, including Blackpool North, Leeds, Glossop, Liverpool Lime Street and Warrington Central, as well as those above from Greater Manchester, would remain open – all chosen ‘based on location and volume of sales’. The number of hours Northern staff would be available at them, however, will reduce.

Ticket barriers at Victoria (Image: Adam Vaughan)

Analysis of the announcement shows inner-city areas of Greater Manchester and the suburbs will be equally hit. The ticket offices at Deansgate railway station in Manchester and Salford Central in Salford will also close, as well as ticket offices at many stations on the outskirts of Greater Manchester in Cheshire and Derbyshire.

Ticket offices will close at the following Greater Manchester stations:

Ashton-under-Lyne
Atherton
Bramhall
Bredbury
Brinnington
Broadbottom
Bromley Cross
Burnage
Cheadle Hulme
Daisy Hill
Davenport
Deansgate
Disley
East Didsbury
Eccles
Farnworth
Flixton
Gatley
Gorton
Greenfield
Guide Bridge
Hag Fold
Hale
Hattersley
Hazel Grove
Heald Green
Heaton Chapel
Hindley
Levenshulme
Littleborough
Lostock Parkway
Marple
Mauldeth Road
Mossley
Newton For Hyde
Parbold
Poynton
Reddish North
Romiley
Rose Hill (Marple)
Salford Central
Swinton
Urmston
Walkden
Wilmslow

Northern said in total, ticket offices would close at 131 stations it operates across the north.

Avanti West Coast, meanwhile, said ‘customer ambassador’ roles would be created.

Passengers buy tickets from self-service machines (Image: Getty Images)

“Part of the proposed plans will see the closure of Avanti West Coast ticket offices with a greater proportion of staff in public areas of stations to provide assistance and reassurance to customers,” said an Avanti statement. These industry-wide proposals represent the biggest update to customer retailing since 1995.”

Industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) unveiled the proposals which could lead to nearly all offices being shut, with facilities only remaining open at the busiest stations. It said moving ticket office staff on to station platforms and concourses would ‘modernise customer service’ after years of ticket office sales slumps – claiming 12 per cent of train tickets are now bought from offices at stations compared to 82 per cent in 1995.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) however, which has been engaged in more than a year of strike action on the railways in a bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions, said ‘hundreds of redundancy notices’ were being issued to ticket office staff.

General secretary Mick Lynch described the closure policy as ‘a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public’.

Passengers will be asked to pay for journeys by tapping contactless cards on barriers, using self-service machines, or buying tickets from staff on station concourses or trains if possible.

Vivienne Francis, chief social change officer at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), said: “A mass closure of rail ticket offices would have a hugely detrimental impact on blind and partially sighted people’s ability to buy tickets, arrange assistance and, critically, travel independently. RNIB research shows that only 3 per cent of people with sight loss said they could use a ticket vending machine without problems and 58% said it was impossible.”

Manchester Piccadilly (Image: Mirrorpix)

Managing Director of Avanti West Coast, Andy Mellors, said: “It is important for the rail industry to change the way it retails tickets as customer behaviour has evolved over the last three decades.

“Our proposals would mean more staff on hand to give face-to-face help with a much wider range of needs, from journey planning, to finding the right ticket and helping those with accessibility needs. Our commitment is that we will always treat our people fairly, with support and extra training to move in to new and varied roles with a number of responsibilities without compromising on the safety of them or our customers.

“We also understand that our customers have differing needs which is why we will be consulting with accessibility groups on this consultation.”

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.

It’s claimed far fewer people are using ticket offices (Image: PA)

“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.”

There are 97 railway stations in the Greater Manchester area, according to Transport for Greater Manchester, although not all have ticket offices. It’s understood a consultation process with affected staff has already begun, and operators hope to avoid compulsory redundancies.

There are 1,007 stations in England run by train companies operating under contracts issued by the UK Government. Posters are being displayed at the vast majority of these on Wednesday informing passengers about the potential closure of the ticket office.

Following the consultation, operators will select which offices they want to close, with the Transport Secretary making the final decision in cases where there is an objection by a passenger watchdog. It is not known how quickly the first sites will close.

References

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