PM says closing railway ticket workplaces is ‘right thing for British public’
T
he proposed mass closure of railway station ticket workplaces is “the right thing for the British public”, Rishi Sunak urged.
The Prime Minister was questioned on his journey to India about plans by practice operators to close almost all station ticket workplaces in England amid stress from the Government to chop prices.
He mentioned: “It’s right that our railway network is modernised and is put on a sustainable footing.
This is actually fundamentally, as far as I understand it, about getting people out of ticket offices on to platforms and in stations where they can help people in different ways
“That’s the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers and recognises the fact that I think only one in 10 tickets are sold currently in ticket offices.
“But this is actually fundamentally, as far as I understand it, about getting people out of ticket offices on to platforms and in stations where they can help people in different ways, which is where the help is required.
“Those are exactly all the things that we’ll be discussing in the consultation and it wouldn’t be right for me to pre-empt the response or what the conclusions are.”
The plan has sparked fierce criticism from opposition politicians, commerce unions, incapacity teams and public transport organisations.
More than 680,000 responses have been submitted to the session, which ended on September 1.
Concerns have been raised by the general public and “stakeholders” across the affect on accessibility, security and safety, points with ticket machines and the way stations shall be staffed in future, in keeping with watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch.
The organisations are analysing the proposals and session responses earlier than responding to coach operators by the top of October.
If the watchdogs object to plans to shut sure station workplaces, the related operator can refer their proposals to Transport Secretary Mark Harper for a ultimate determination.
An on-line petition calling for ticket workplaces to stay open handed 100,000 signatures on Friday, that means the difficulty could be thought of for debate in Parliament.