Southampton councillor backs U-turn on ticket office closure plans

City councillor and parliamentary candidate Darren Paffey said the decision to scrap plans to close ticket offices is "the right one". 

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said this week that proposals to close offices in England "did not meet the high thresholds" of serving rail passengers. 

The U-turn comes after industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) unveiled proposals in July which could have lead to nearly all offices being shut, with facilities only remaining open at the busiest stations.

But now Cllr Paffey has called for collaboration between companies, passengers and staff to improve the service.

READ MORE: Train ticket offices to stay open as closure plans scrapped

He said: “The decision to scrap plans to close ticket offices in Southampton and across the country is the right one.

"It will come as good news for the many Southampton passengers who still buy their tickets at rail stations, many of whom are elderly or disabled rail users who might otherwise struggle to use digital alternatives.

"It will also be reassuring to the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the British rail industry including staff employed here in Southampton.

"Ministers have wasted a lot of time and money to work out what was clear to most people all along, that ticket offices and their staff are a valuable supportive service for passengers, which help keep rail travel popular - 99 per cent of the 750,000 consultation responses were objections."

Cllr Darren Paffey

Ticket offices across the country faced closure under the controversial plans that unions and campaigners said would lead to job losses and difficulties for passengers such as the elderly and disabled in paying for travel.

But the Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the Government made clear during the consultation that any resulting proposals "must meet a high threshold of serving passengers".

He said: “We have engaged with accessibility groups throughout this process and listened carefully to passengers as well as my colleagues in Parliament.

"The proposals that have resulted from this process do not meet the high thresholds set by ministers, and so the Government has asked train operators to withdraw their proposals.

“We will continue our work to reform our railways".

Cllr Paffey said the government had been forced into a "humiliating climbdown, disowning the very proposals which their ministers were supporting a few months ago".

He added: "It’s time now for ministers to move forward by seeking collaboration with train companies, passenger groups, staff and trade unions to ensure the continued delivery of secure and accessible services putting passengers before profit.”