Labour candidate Alison Hume slams government over Scarborough ticket office closure

Earlier this month train operators confirmed the government’s proposals over the next three years to shut down almost all the 1,007 remaining ticket offices in England, in an attempt, they say, to “modernise” the railway.

Ms Hume, Labour & Co-operative Parliamentary Candidate for Scarborough and Whitby, said: “The government announced there would be a consultation before a final decision. In reality they’ve given the public just three weeks to lodge their opposition.

“I called in to Scarborough ticket office only to find they’d not been provided with paper copies of the consultation and the only way to take part would be to scan a QR code.

"This in no way could be described as a democratic consultation process.”

Ms Hume has been canvassing local residents for their views and she says there’s widespread concern.

She added: “In particular elderly and disabled residents are very worried.

“Many tell me they don’t have smart phones or access to the internet so how will they book public transport in the future? In addition, we’re looking at more job losses and the removal of yet another service relied upon by passengers needing help to plan their journeys.”

Currently one in nine tickets are still sold at ticket offices. That represents over 150 million of the 1.4 billion rail journeys recorded over the past year.

Ms Hume, who has spent her adult life advocating on behalf of people will disabilities, said: “Research by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has found that only 3% of people with sight loss said they could use a ticket vending machine without problems and 58% said it was impossible.

“I’ve therefore written to the Transport Secretary Mark Harper asking for assurances on the safety and accessibility of the rail network for disabled and elderly passengers whilst also wanting to know what will happen to the rail staff currently deployed in the rail ticket office in Scarborough, what will the impact be on their job security and when will digital and pay as you go ticketing technology be available across the whole of the rail network?”

In her letter to Mr Harper, Ms Hume went on to say that passengers in Scarborough and Whitby are already suffering due to cuts in services and the chaos on the railways, adding that they shouldn’t have to face any further disruptions to their travel plans due to the government’s poor management of the rail networks.

“Under this Conservative government, private operators have been allowed to profit whilst cancellations have reached record highs, basic services like Wi-Fi are at risk of being taken away, plans to bring forward legislation to reform services have been scrapped and now ticket offices are facing closures without thought for the vulnerable users that rely on them”.

Alison Hume will be discussing the closures in more detail on Politics North (North East and Cumbria) BBC 1 on Sunday July 16 at 10am.