Rail campaigners have welcomed this week’s news that plans to close most train station ticket offices have been dropped. But, says the Halifax & District Rail Action Group (Hadrag), passengers need to be alert to possible future plans.
In Calderdale, Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden should now keep their booking offices. What is needed now, says Hadrag, is ambition and imagination to expand the role of staff at more, not fewer stations. Longer staffing hours, not shorter. More staff to help more people, not least those who are elderly and those with disabilities.
Stephen Waring, chair of Hadrag, said:
It is a great relief that ticket offices appear to have been saved. Staff at stations like Halifax, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden and elsewhere in our region do a magnificent job. They are keen to make sure passengers buy the right ticket and get the best value in a system where the range of possibilities can be baffling. They can help in ways that can never be available online or by self-service machines. For many disabled, elderly, and needy passengers station staff are vital.
“The railway needs to value its staff and extend their role. More stations need staff – places like Sowerby Bridge and Brighouse that were promised a human presence when Northern’s franchise started in 2016. And, we would argue, stations need to be staffed from earlier in the morning to later in the evening. Staff there to help passengers – including people with disabilities – give a greater feeling of security and make our stations a more human place.
“Ticket offices need to be able to retail the full range of tickets that is available online – at present this is not always the case.
“But this is about a lot more than just selling tickets. More staff would make stations more attractive, more able to help people with special needs, attracting more passengers whose fares would help to pay the costs. Value for public money should mean attracting people not putting them off with lonely stations.
“On Liverpool’s locally controlled Merseyrail Electrics network, most if not all stations have booking offices with staff present from before the first train of the day until after the last one. Is it too ambitious to say that is what we should now be aiming for across Northern and other companies’ networks?
“We must keep on campaigning for a better deal for our stations. We must not lower our defences, but keep a keen eye on what the train companies – under the government – are planning.
“Our stations must remain places energised by people, for people.
Halifax and District Rail Action Group 