Dismay and disgust among travellers at plans to close ticket offices

People passing through Stafford station on Thursday morning were being given leaflets by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) to inform them of plans to close ticket offices at stations.

The new plans would see ticket offices closed over the next three years, with customer information centres instead being utilised to see train employees available to speak to passengers on concourses and platforms and ticket vending machine upgraded.

The RMT members were handing out the leaflets to ask passengers and people passing through the station to take part in a public consultation around the plans, which is being run by the passenger watchdogs Transport Focus and London Travelwatch.

They also spoke about the closure of the ticket office would result in the loss of five jobs at the station, with at least four full time and one part time members of staff set to face redundancy.

For some of the older members of the public travelling through the station, the thought of losing the ticket office left them feeling disgusted and disappointed at both the loss of a valuable service, but also how it would affect staff threatened with redundancy.

Angela Llewellyn from Telford was heading through Stafford on her way to Liverpool and the 77-year-old said she thought it was a disgusting idea.

She said: "I think it's quite disgusting, to be honest, as older people who can't handle this modern life will find things a lot more difficult as it will inhibit them in their social lives, so I think it's a rubbish idea by the government.

"They just don't seem to have considered the old people and all they are doing is look after the younger people who are ok with this modern technology as it's second nature to them.

"I just think it's bad news and really awful."

The sentiments of Ms Llewellyn were agreed with by Mark and Alison Howard from Stafford, who had visited the ticket office to sort out tickets for their holiday, with the 61-year-old Mark saying he vehemently disagreed with the plans.

He said: "It's not very good and, in fact, I think it's disgusting as a lot of older people are not on the internet and you wonder how they're going to book tickets.

"Booking tickets is going to be the biggest problem for me as it's far more convenient for me to pop in here and book on the day, spur of the moment, so it's going to be a big inconvenience for me and for a lot of people.

"I've also found that, at times, the ticket machines aren't working or don't offer the best prices, plus I think it's a really bad idea, plus I really feel for the five staff who are going to lose their jobs because of this."

The 59-year-old Alison said: "It's the timing of it as well as the staff here are so helpful and do things like printing off times for you and helping you find the cheapest option, so we'll end up losing all of that if they close these offices."

Antony Emery from Stafford was also quick to decry the plans, with the 68-year-old saying that, as a blind man, it would take away an essential service for people like him.

He said: "I think it's disgraceful as I think the ticket office is essential and people need it and need to have someone who we can speak to, such as today when they sorted out a problem for me which I don't think we could have done without the ticket office being there.

"I'm a blind man and I can't use the ticket machines in the concourse, so the assistance they provide is essential, and they keep talking about having people on the concourse, but you still need to know where to find them.

"I just think it's a very poor idea and there's going to be a lot of people who don't like this idea at all."

John Watson, RMT Midlands regional organiser, said he felt the plans were going to be massively detrimental to RMT members and the public and spoke about what the union wanted to achieve from the action.

He said: "This is going to be completely detrimental to our members, with some of them potentially being made redundant, to the travelling public and the impact on being able to access discounted cheap tickets.

"There's also the issue of accessibility for people who have not got access to the internet or do not want to use the internet and if you have a disability, whether that be physical, mental or something like dyslexia or something else where you can't actually read what's on, then it's going to impact your ability to buy the right ticket.

"We want this campaign to raise awareness among the public to the detrimental changes this is potentially going to have on them and for them to get in touch with Transport Focus to get them to change their views and highlight their views on the changes."