LNER proposes to close ticket office at Grantham railway station
A proposal to close the ticket office at Grantham railway station has been put forward.
LNER has put its proposal out to consultation and plans to close other offices at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Darlington, Durham, Newark Northgate, Retford, and Wakefield Westgate on the East Coast Main Line. This is part of plans by operators to close around 1,000 ticket offices around the country.
LNER says that its staff will instead move out of the travel centres and will have mobile devices enabling them to sell the vast majority of ticket types in stations and will also be there to assist customers using ticket vending machines.
The train operator says that 87 per cent of tickets are now bought online, only six per cent are bought at ticket offices and seven per cent through ticket vending machines at LNER stations, as well as London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, where LNER sells tickets.
Under it proposals, LNER says Grantham station will still be staffed from the first train until the last, but customers will not be able to buy all ticket types at the station. Customers won’t be able to obtain season replacement, Rovers & Rangers, excesses, photocards, refunds, seat reservations or rail cards.
A LNER spokesperson said: “We are modernising the way we retail tickets at Grantham Station. Our new team of multi-skilled station staff will be available across the station to sell tickets or assist with the use of ticket vending machines, if required. This will allow the ticket office to close and help us prioritise meeting the evolving needs of our customers.”
A public consultation starts today and ends on July 26. LNER says it will will then consult on the feedback and address concerns of the users of Grantham station.
To give your feedback on these proposals, email TicketOffice.LNER@transportfocus.org.uk
More information on the proposals can be found here.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has slammed the plans to close ticket offices.
It claims that statutory redundancy notices for hundreds of railway workers are being issued, something which it will fiercely oppose.
General Secretary Mick Lynch said: "The decision to close up to 1,000 ticket offices and to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff is a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public.
"Travellers will be forced to rely on apps and remote mobile teams to be available to assist them rather than having trained staff on stations.
"This is catastrophic for elderly, disabled and vulnerable passengers trying to access the rail network.
“The arrangements for ticket office opening hours, set out in Schedule 17 of the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, are the only statutory regulation of station staffing.
“It is crystal clear that the government and train companies want to tear up this agreement and pave the way for a massive de-staffing of the rail network.
"Some of the train operators issuing our members with statutory redundancy notices today are cutting two thirds of their workforce.
"It is clear that the whole enterprise of closing ticket offices has got nothing to do with modernisation and is a thinly veiled plan to gut our railways of station staff.
"Fat cat rail operators and the government do not care one jot about passenger safety, or a well-staffed and friendly railway open to all to use. They want to cut costs, make profits for shareholders, and run the network into the ground without a thought as to the vital role the rail industry plays in the country's economy.
"RMT is mounting a strong industrial and political campaign to resist ticket office closures and station staff cuts. And we will continue our fight on July 20, 22 and 29 when 20,000 railway workers on the train operators go on strike."
