It is being reported that a government commisioned report is recommending the closure of 675 ticket offices. They are spread around the country and no area seems safe. Here in Northumberland, both Alnmouth and Morpeth are to be downgraded to unstaffed halts, despite Alnmouth being so busy that the opening hours of the office were recently extended to two full shifts in order to cope with demand.
I don't want to start a rant here, but this to me seems to be yet another example of interference by a truly malevalent government who seem to be hell bent on destroying everything in the interests of saving a few bob, despite previous experience showing that costs will rise and patronage drop at affected stations.
Press article here:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpres ... 206937631A
Ticket Office closures
Moderators: 52D, Tom F, Rlangham, Atlantic 3279, Blink Bonny, Saint Johnstoun, richard
Re: Ticket Office closures
But surely the offices are paid for by the owning TOC's not the government? In Yorkshire Selby, Beverley, Goole and Malton were mentioned.
Re: Ticket Office closures
The report was proposing all catagory E stations should become unstaffed, without really understanding what was in Catagory E. Part of the problem is that this catagory is the lowest staffed station catagory and if the criteria are slavishly followed the allocations are right. But the criteria are London & South east orientated so do not work for the likes of Alnmouth and Beverley. However some of the owning TOCs should have put more effort into getting it right to start with as many on the list could reasonably be catagory D, particularly some of those mentioned.
Personally I always hate this sort of catagorisation as it enables remote management to suspend any thought or knowledge and make these sweeping statements/decisions. It is not a decision, as there is a well defined process to reduce hours, close booking offices, and it has to be proposed by the Train operator. They will only do it, if it is not too difficult anfd they will, of course, take the cost savings (if there are any) until the end of the franchise.
Each station needs to be considered on its own merits, and I suspect there are a number that probably can be de-staffed, but there are also some that perhaps deserve staffing Bathgate had a brand new station building, booking office and became staffed in December 2010 with the opening of the Airdrie-Bathgate link
Time for a bit of local support for these threatened offices from the towns they serve. Letters to MPs is always a good start, but using them helps! Then there is the self help model e.g. Chester-le-Street.
In the face of modern centralism maybe self-help is the only answer - on the basis if you want a job done....... you know the rest. It is possible that Aln Valley Railway might be able to make a profit out of running Alnmouth station on behalf of the wider railway industry. Maybe more "Friends of xxx station" will spring up to resue the situation and deliver benefits for local stations and communities
Personally I always hate this sort of catagorisation as it enables remote management to suspend any thought or knowledge and make these sweeping statements/decisions. It is not a decision, as there is a well defined process to reduce hours, close booking offices, and it has to be proposed by the Train operator. They will only do it, if it is not too difficult anfd they will, of course, take the cost savings (if there are any) until the end of the franchise.
Each station needs to be considered on its own merits, and I suspect there are a number that probably can be de-staffed, but there are also some that perhaps deserve staffing Bathgate had a brand new station building, booking office and became staffed in December 2010 with the opening of the Airdrie-Bathgate link
Time for a bit of local support for these threatened offices from the towns they serve. Letters to MPs is always a good start, but using them helps! Then there is the self help model e.g. Chester-le-Street.
In the face of modern centralism maybe self-help is the only answer - on the basis if you want a job done....... you know the rest. It is possible that Aln Valley Railway might be able to make a profit out of running Alnmouth station on behalf of the wider railway industry. Maybe more "Friends of xxx station" will spring up to resue the situation and deliver benefits for local stations and communities
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third-rail
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Re: Ticket Office closures
is the whitby ticket office run by the nymr?cambois wrote:The report was proposing all catagory E stations should become unstaffed, without really understanding what was in Catagory E. Part of the problem is that this catagory is the lowest staffed station catagory and if the criteria are slavishly followed the allocations are right. But the criteria are London & South east orientated so do not work for the likes of Alnmouth and Beverley. However some of the owning TOCs should have put more effort into getting it right to start with as many on the list could reasonably be catagory D, particularly some of those mentioned.
Personally I always hate this sort of catagorisation as it enables remote management to suspend any thought or knowledge and make these sweeping statements/decisions. It is not a decision, as there is a well defined process to reduce hours, close booking offices, and it has to be proposed by the Train operator. They will only do it, if it is not too difficult anfd they will, of course, take the cost savings (if there are any) until the end of the franchise.
Each station needs to be considered on its own merits, and I suspect there are a number that probably can be de-staffed, but there are also some that perhaps deserve staffing Bathgate had a brand new station building, booking office and became staffed in December 2010 with the opening of the Airdrie-Bathgate link
Time for a bit of local support for these threatened offices from the towns they serve. Letters to MPs is always a good start, but using them helps! Then there is the self help model e.g. Chester-le-Street.
In the face of modern centralism maybe self-help is the only answer - on the basis if you want a job done....... you know the rest. It is possible that Aln Valley Railway might be able to make a profit out of running Alnmouth station on behalf of the wider railway industry. Maybe more "Friends of xxx station" will spring up to resue the situation and deliver benefits for local stations and communities
Re: Ticket Office closures
There's another interesting side to this. We tend to have a romantic notion that in the old days stations were much busier than they are now, since in the case of Selby it had the ECML and branch lines to Cawood, Driffield and Goole. It would also have been fully staffed with ticket clerks, porters etc.
Ken Hoole's book "Railway Stations Of The North East" gives ticket issuing figures for all NER stations for (I think) 1922 and in that year Selby sold 125804 tickets.
However according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_railway_station in 2008/2009 it sold HALF A MILLION tickets, ie FOUR TIMES as many as in 1922!
And that was 3 years ago.
According to Rail Magazine the recession has prompted many people to take "Staycations" (holidays in the UK) with the result that on holiday oriented branch lines passenger figures have boomed - in the case of the Matlock branch up by 86%!
Ken Hoole's book "Railway Stations Of The North East" gives ticket issuing figures for all NER stations for (I think) 1922 and in that year Selby sold 125804 tickets.
However according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_railway_station in 2008/2009 it sold HALF A MILLION tickets, ie FOUR TIMES as many as in 1922!
And that was 3 years ago.
According to Rail Magazine the recession has prompted many people to take "Staycations" (holidays in the UK) with the result that on holiday oriented branch lines passenger figures have boomed - in the case of the Matlock branch up by 86%!
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Multiprinter
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Re: Ticket Office closures
The Wikipedia figures are for the number of passengers using the station not tickets issued.
I don't know the source of the figures but presumably it is derived from tickets sold from Selby and tickets sold elsewhere to Selby. I suspect that return journeys are counted as 2 passengers and seasons as multiplied by 2 per day of validity, so that the number of individual passengers is actually nearer to 200,000.
With an assumption of half of those buying tickets at Selby it gives a figure of 2000 tickets per week which would accord with the provision of a one window ticket office, its opening hours and the service provision.
If anyone can provide accurate ticket sales information I would be pleased to have the details both for Selby and elsewhere.
I don't know the source of the figures but presumably it is derived from tickets sold from Selby and tickets sold elsewhere to Selby. I suspect that return journeys are counted as 2 passengers and seasons as multiplied by 2 per day of validity, so that the number of individual passengers is actually nearer to 200,000.
With an assumption of half of those buying tickets at Selby it gives a figure of 2000 tickets per week which would accord with the provision of a one window ticket office, its opening hours and the service provision.
If anyone can provide accurate ticket sales information I would be pleased to have the details both for Selby and elsewhere.