The
ticket
office
saga
is
rumbling
on.

More
objections
are
being
made
publicly.
One
city
Mayor
has
even
questioned
whether
the
plan
by
the
Department
for
Transport
to
close
nearly
all
station
ticket
offices
in
England
is
actually
legal.

Certainly
the
train
operators,
who
have
been
given
the
unenviable
task
of
starting
the
consultation
process
which
is
required
by
law,
have
made
a
dog’s
breakfast
of
explaining
what
is
happening,
with
some
of
them
giving
the
plans
little
publicity.

At
least
one
of
these
is
state-owned
LNER,
so
this
isn’t
a
case
of
the
private
sector
trying
to
resist
governmental
pressures.

It
has
become
all
too
clear
that
the
DfT
is
using
the
present
structure
of
the
passenger
railway
to
offload
as
much
as
the
blame
as
possible
on
to
the
operators,
whether
they
are
in
the
public
or
private
sectors


(writes
Sim
Harris).

One
example
of
the
DfT’s
approach
was
provided
in
the
Commons
on
10
July,
although
not
in
connection
with
ticket
offices,
when
rail
minister
Huw
Merriman
was
answering
three
questions
from
Poplar
and
Limehouse
MP
Apsana
Begum
about
the
free
travel
concessions
available
to
senior
managers
and
board
members
at
LNER,
Northern
and
Southeastern.

Mr
Merriman
reached
for
his
copy
of
DfT
Myths
and
Legends
(presumably),
and
in
all
seriousness
offered
this
remarkable
answer
(three
times):
‘The
renumeration
packages
between
the
organisation
and
Board
members
or
Directors
are
a
matter
for
the
individual
companies.
They
are
all
independent
third
parties.’

Really,
minister?
In
one
case
the
question
had
referred
not
to
the
operator’s
directors,
but
to
those
on
the
board
of
OLR
DfT
Holdings
Ltd,
which
describes
itself
as
having
been
‘established
by
the
Department
for
Transport
and
is
the
public
sector-owning
group
responsible
for
three
train
operating
companies
…
DOHL
fulfils
the
Secretary
of
State
for
Transport’s
requirements
under
Section
30
of
the
Railways
Act
…’

And
yet,
when
it
seems
prudent
to
withdraw
into
the
ministerial
bunker,
even
the
DfT’s
own
company
is
an
‘independent
third
party’.

That
is
the
kind
of
logical
thinking
which
has
illuminated
the
official
stance
on
ticket
office
closures,
and
it
may
account
for
at
least
part
of
the
dog’s
breakfast.

When
the
proposals
are
held
up
to
the
light,
they
can
be
seen
to
be
suspiciously
threadbare.
For
example
the
busiest
and
second
busiest
stations
on
National
Rail
are
London
Waterloo
(41,426,042
entrances
and
exits
in
2021-22,
according
to
the
ORR)
and
London
Victoria
(36,776,338).

However,
the
modest
station
at
Runcorn
East,
which
ranks
at
number
1,425
in
the
busiest
stations
league
(120,012
entrances
and
exits),
is
keeping
its
ticket
office,
although
the
nearby
station
of
Runcorn
on
the
West
Coast
Main
Line
(four
times
as
busy,
with
486,270)
is
not.

The
explanation
is
that
Runcorn
(WCML)
is
run
by
Avanti
West
Coast,
which
is
closing
all
its
offices,
including
London
Euston
(23,097,606),
but
Runcorn
East
is
under
the
control
of
Transport
for
Wales,
which
is
having
nothing
to
do
with
any
of
this
closures
business.

But
even
when
stations
are
under
the
management
of
a
DfT
operator,
there
are
no
guarantees.
Stations
like
London
Waterloo
(South
Western
Railway)
and
London
Paddington
(Great
Western
Railway,
23,870,510)
are
losing
their
ticket
windows,
but
the
windows
at
London
Fenchurch
Street
(c2c,
7,795,346)
are
to
stay.

In
Manchester,
where
Piccadilly
(Avanti
West
Coast,19,581,442
and
the
tenth
busiest
station
in
Britain)
will
have
to
manage
without
ticket
windows,
suburban
Glossop,
which
is
run
more
benevolently
by
Northern
(588,956
entrances
and
exits)
will
see
no
change,
and
its
office
will
continue.
Northern
is
closing
131
ticket
offices
but
keeping
18,
including
Glossop.

In
Scotland,
the
pantomime
is
much
the
same.
Glasgow
Central
(Avanti
West
Coast,
15,322,350)
will
have
its
ticket
windows
closed,
but
Glasgow
Queen
Street
(ScotRail,
8,467,718)
will
carry
on.

In
spite
of
the
axe
falling
on
Glasgow
Central,
Edinburgh
(LNER,
13,617,536)
will
also
keep
its
ticket
office,
because
LNER
is
maintaining
ticket
offices
at
its
six
busiest
stations
along
the
East
Coast
Main
Line,
including
London
King’s
Cross
(20,476,492).

The
core
excuse
for
the
closures
is
that
only
about
12
per
cent
of
passengers
are
now
using
ticket
offices.
Taking
that
figure
as
an
average,
that
means
the
office
at
London
Waterloo
is
still
being
used
by
some
five
million
passengers
a
year,
or
nearly
14,000
people
a
day.

There
are
going
to
be
some
big
queues
for
the
ticket
machines.