Railway ticket office closure plans scrapped: Eastbourne MP ‘delighted’ with announcement

Caroline Ansell said: “I am delighted the government has asked train operators to withdraw their ticket office closure proposals.

“This means Eastbourne, Polegate and Hampden Park will maintain the current level of face-to-face customer service for passengers.

“Thank you to all those who worked with me on the response I made on behalf of the town. It showed the strength of opposition from many quarters and we have been listened to.”

The plans had been for a ‘partial closure’ of the office at Eastbourne and full closures at Hampden Park and Polegate, according to the MP.

She added: “Eastbourne Station is hugely important to the life of the town – both for locals and visitors - and it needs to be accessible to all.

“The plans to close the offices or reduce hours ran the risk of disenfranchising vulnerable members of our community and they went too far.

“I understand the need to reform the railways and to reduce costs, but excluding passengers who are not able to buy tickets online or from machines is not the way to do it.”

Mrs Ansell had criticised plans to reduce ticket offices from railway stations in Eastbourne, Hampden Park and Polegate.

She said the proposals from rail operators were 'deeply flawed and will fail to meet the needs of elderly, disabled and less confident rail users'.

Rail unions RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) and TSSA (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association) have also welcomed the news that the plans have been scrapped.

On behalf of train operators across the UK, Rail Delivery Group chief executive Jacqueline Starr said: “These proposals were about adapting the railway to the changing needs of customers in the smartphone era, balanced against the significant financial challenge faced by the industry as it recovers from the pandemic.

“At a time when the use of ticket offices is irreversibly declining, we also want to give our people more enriching and rewarding careers geared towards giving passengers more visible face-to-face support.

"While these plans won’t now be taken forward, we will continue to look at other ways to improve passenger experience while delivering value for the taxpayer. Our priority remains to secure a vibrant long-term future for the industry and all those who work in it.”

A spokesperson from Govia Thameslink Railway, which runs Southern Rail, said: “We believed these proposals were a real opportunity to modernise and improve our customers’ experience by placing our colleagues where they are needed most to provide support for all customers travelling on our services. The way customers buy tickets has changed significantly in recent years, and on the GTR network nine in 10 tickets are now bought away from the traditional ticket office.

“We worked closely with Transport Focus and London TravelWatch to reflect customer and stakeholder feedback and made key improvements. Whilst the passenger bodies recognised the improvements made, and were supportive of the principle of redeploying staff from ticket offices to improve the overall offer for customers, they made clear that they are not able to approve these changes as they had feedback related to the railway as a whole which has not been completely addressed. Therefore, the government has asked train operators to withdraw their proposals.”