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The consultation closed last week amid concerns from across the country around accessibility, safety and security, issues with ticket machines and how stations would be staffed in the future. Transport watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch are now reviewing the feedback they have received across 680,000 responses.

Under the current proposals, staffed ticket offices at Telford Central and Wellington would close and be replaced with ‘mobile customer service teams’. 

The council’s response urges West Midlands Railway to give more detail on how the proposed changes would work safely and without a deterioration of customer service. It also highlights that proposals are likely to disproportionately affect people with certain protected characteristics, particularly older people or those with a disability, as well as those people who do not have a smart phone or internet access, or use cash rather than cards to make purchases. 

Leader of the Council, Councillor Shaun Davies (Labour) said: “While we recognise the way passengers buy train tickets has changed in recent years, and wider reform to railway operation and ticketing is needed, we cannot support the proposed changes to close ticket Offices at Telford Central and Wellington, and the proposal to replace the ticket offices at these stations with a mobile customer service team.

“We strongly advocate for a further detailed national engagement on this, including detailed assessments of the impact on those that rely on traditional ticket offices to access the railway.

“The proposals present themselves as providing no loss in customer service but as an enhancement to the current provision. It is difficult to see how the proposed mobile customer service team can provide this without significant investment and additional staff.”

No further details on what happens next have been published by West Midlands Rail but it is understood that transport watchdogs will report back on their findings to train operators by 31 October and that their findings will be published online.

Photo: Wellington Station

Train station ticket office consultation – DRAFT RESPONSE

How will you be impacted by the proposed changes to the ticket office?

Telford & Wrekin Council is responding to the West Midlands Trains Station Retailing Changes consultation on behalf of residents within the Borough of Telford & Wrekin. The Borough has three stations – Oakengates (currently unstaffed), Telford Central and Wellington all operated by West Midlands Trains.

While we recognise the way passengers purchase tickets has changed in recent years, and wider reform to railway operation and ticketing is needed, we cannot support the proposed changes to close the ticket Offices at Telford Central and Wellington, and the proposal to replace the ticket office service with a mobile customer service team.

At present only high level proposals have been shared. There are no details on exactly how a mobile team would work, what hours they would operate, and how many staff would be part of the team, how safety would be maintained and ticket equity would be achieved. Therefore we strongly advocate for a further detailed consultation period of 12 weeks, in line with Government’s own code of practice, where the full details of the new provision are provided including the provision of Equality Impact Assessments.

Under the proposals currently unstaffed stations could be covered by the proposed mobile customer service team. There are a number of unstaffed stations along the Shrewsbury to Wolverhampton line – namely Oakengates, Shifnal, Albrighton, Cosford, Codsall and Billbrook. If all these stations are now going to be receive some level of customer service provision, then without an increase in the number of staff, it must be assumed that there will be a detrimental decrease in the level of service Telford Central and Wellington stations currently experience. We do not support this.

The proposals present themselves as providing no loss in customer service but as an enhancement to the current provision. However, at present, it is difficult to see how the proposed mobile customer service team can provide this, without significant investment and additional staff. Full details of how the mobile team will operate must be provided, so further assessment can take place.

Telford Central and Wellington are small stations, consisting of two platforms, and an office/concourse area. While we support making customer service staff more visible and accessible to passengers, how will safety be managed on the platforms when mobile customer service staff interact with passengers? Informal queuing to access staff could cause crowding issues which would affect the safe operation of the platform / concourse area. This risk could increase during times of journey disruption. West Midlands Trains need to provide details of how this will be managed and monitored before any changes can take place. Risk assessments should be provided.

The impact of these proposals are likely to disproportionately affect certain protected characteristics, namely age and disability, as well as those people who do not have a smart phone or internet access, or use cash rather than cards to make purchases. 

At present no Equality Impact Assessment has been provided. How do we know that the proposals are truly fair and do not present barriers or disadvantage any protected groups from using the rail network. EIAs should be provided immediately before any decision is made, and passengers should be able to access the EIAs and provide further comment.

Very few ticket vending machines take cash, are complicated, don’t always provide passengers with the best value ticket, and do not allow purchase of all ticket types. While proposals state ticket vending machines will be updated, there are no details on whether they will all take cash as well as card payments, include all tickets options including those you can only currently purchase through a ticket office and be made easier and simpler to use. It would also seem prudent that this was undertaken after a network-wide rationalisation of fares and tickets, after which you would hope that the fare/ticket structure is clearer. All ticket vending machines must be up graded to the same standard across the rail network.

Additionally will all ticket options be available to purchase from the mobile customer services staff, through the devices they are to be provided with? Will they accept cash? What provisions will be made for their safety, in regard to carrying potentially large amounts of cash? 

Will passengers be able to purchase tickets on board when they only have cash or the ticket machine fails or has been vandalised, or they couldn’t purchase a ticket from the member of staff as they were not present or the queue to purchase a ticket from the member of staff on the platform was too long? Under current arrangements it is not unreasonable to imagine a situation where a traveller could fall foul of Revenue Protection Officers when then simply were unable to access a purchasing route to suit their needs. 

What service level will be provided to all passengers regardless of payment method, or how they purchase a ticket (be it from a ticket vending machine, app, on board or from mobile customer service staff)?

Considering the questions above further clarification is needed regarding the purchasing of rail tickets on board. There is already confusion as some TOCs currently offer this service and others don’t. Plus those that do sometimes will allow a ticket to be purchased on board but at other times they won’t and fines are issued. How will revenue protection be maintained? Are all stations now to be gated? How would that be managed?

Details of ensuring ticket equity and fairness must be provided before any decision is made, alongside how revenue protection will be maintained, and updates to relevant agreements, bylaws and codes of practice to provide passengers with clarity and transparency.

In 2021, the Government announced plans to establish the Great British Railway to reform Britain’s rail network and create a simpler, better system. GBR Transition Team was established to create this new organisation, to start to co-ordinate a whole industry approach and lay the foundations of a more customer-focused commercially robust rail network. 

Therefore the current rail ticket office reform proposals consultation seems to be at odds with the remit and priorities of GBR and GRBTT. The timing is wrong and it feels as though the proposals are being rushed. There is a lack of appropriate consideration given to full impacts these changes will bring, as the full details are not available.

GBR is not in place to lead this change and deliver the established priorities across the network. How can GBR bring about change for the better when they are not fully established or leading and managing the change as they proposed to do? 

Without GBR it will be very difficult to ensure consistency, fairness and equity across the different train operating companies who manage the stations. This will lead to confusion and a very poor customer experience. Passenger already experience a poor service when they made enquiries regarding a TOC that is not the same TOC managing the station. How will the TOCS ensure that their staff are fully aware of all information relating to the various TOCS that serve a station?

The rail ticket office reform proposals should be led and managed by GBR who in principal will be in a better position to deliver an improved customer experience, focusing on services that meet customers’ needs across the entire rail network, that will results in a thriving, connected, greener Britain.

This consultation raises more questions than the details provide. It is not possible to assess the full impact of these proposals at this stage. Therefore we believe it is not possible to make a decision on the proposals to close ticket offices based on the information provided by this consultation.

All the questions and queries raised through this consultation should be responded to, and further dialogue should be entered into. These proposals should be led by GBR to ensure fairness, consistency and equity across the rail network. At present there are 13 separate consultations running simultaneously rather than one national consultation.