Northern mayors to continue legal challenge after consultation on ticket office closures ends

With a consultation on plans to close the majority of ticket offices across England having concluded, city-region mayors from across the North have issued a statement setting out that they will continue a legal challenger to oppose plans.

Rail operating companies set out proposals earlier this year to close manned ticket offices in the majority of stations in England, with staff redeployed into more general customer service roles on station concourses. Originally a six week consultation was proposed, which was then extended to the 1st September following Northern mayors beginning legal action against the plans.

City-region mayors, which include Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, have argued that the consultation has not been carried out in line with the 2005 Railways Act, and that equality impact assessments have not been carried out to estimate the affect changes would have on vulnerable rail users, particularly those with disabilities and older passengers who may be unable to use electronic ticket vending machines or smartphone apps.

The consultation on plans, which would see all of Stockport’s ticket offices close, closed at midnight on Friday 1st September. While consultation responses are reviewed, mayors Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin, Steve Rotheram and Oliver Coppard (representing Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City-region and South Yorkshire respectively) have reiterated their commitment to stopping plans. In their statement, they said:

“The train companies initially tried to push the closure of ticket offices through, under the radar. Together, we made them listen.

“Our legal challenge resulted in the operators extending the consultation process, addressing unfair accessibility issues and producing Equality Impact Assessments which are vital in assessing the plans. This meant that more people were able to have their say on the plans – and may otherwise have remained unheard.

“The law is clear that operators cannot close parts of stations without following the clear procedure set out in the Railways Act 2005. This procedure has still not been followed and the process of our legal challenge with the train firms around this remains ongoing.  

“Closing ticket offices will hit the most vulnerable hardest. At a time when we need more people using the railways, these plans would have the opposite effect.

“All eyes are now on Transport Focus to see how they respond to the hundreds of thousands of responses that we believe they have received. There is still an opportunity here to do the right thing and stop these plans now.

“In the meantime, we stand firm, and we will keep fighting.”

Responding the end of the consultation period, a spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group (which is managing the consultation on behalf of rail operating companies), said:

“We appreciate all the input we’ve received so far from the public and stakeholders. We want all our passengers to feel supported during any transition, and train companies will now work with independent passenger bodies at a local level to take on board the feedback.

“In the meantime, we will continue to engage with passengers, accessibility and safety groups to make a better and more robust railway.”