Selaine Saxby MP has welcomed the decision to keep the ticket office at Barnstaple train station open after writing to the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper MP and meeting with Railways Minister, Huw Merriman MP in Westminster.
The withdrawal of the proposal to close ticket offices comes after the Transport Focus consultation which ended on the 1st September. Transport Focus and London TravelWatch received 750,000 responses from individuals and organisations to the consultation.
Following further meetings with accessibility groups and the passenger bodies, it has become clear the ticket office proposals do not meet the high thresholds set by ministers. The Government has therefore communicated to the industry that ticket office reform should not proceed. This means that Train Operating Companies are now expected to withdraw their proposals with no ticket offices set to close.
Over 45% of the ticket sales in Barnstaple are done using our ticket office, the highest customer rate in the south west. Another statistic from the RNIB suggests that over 76% of people blind and partially sight person reported to prefer buying their tickets from a person at a ticket office.
Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon said:
“I am very glad that train companies and Transport Focus have listened and withdrawn their proposals to close the ticket office at Barnstaple train station. This is what consultations are for, I was against these proposals from the start, with 45.5% of ticket sales in Barnstaple made face to face at the ticket office, I did not see any reason to close it, when what we needed, and still do is investment and improvements.
“I lobbied very hard on this issue, I wrote to the Managing Director of GWR, the Secretary of State for the Department for Transport, Mark Harper and Minister for Rail and HS2, Huw Merriman MP and also met with the Minister in Westminster to talk about the closure directly and how it would disproportionately impact the elderly and disabled people who rely on our ticket offices.
Transport Focus, in their consultation response noted a comment about accessibility from a Barnstaple resident “How will visually impaired or blind people find staff to help at ticket machines as quickly as a ticket office?”
We can and should be doing more and moving forward, I would like to see GWR invest in our much loved Barnstaple station, enhance the facilities that we already have and make them even better so that residents and tourists can travel comfortably.
I would like to thank every single one of you who have completed the consultation and have written to me about the closure because together we have made a real change to travel in North Devon.”
Transport Secretary Mark Harper said:
“The consultation on ticket offices has now ended, with the Government making clear to the rail industry throughout the process that any resulting proposals must meet a high threshold of serving passengers.
“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 with the expansion of contactless Pay As You Go ticketing, making stations more accessible through our Access for All programme and £350 million funding through our Network North plan to improve accessibility at up to 100 stations.”
