When was the last time you used a ticket office at a train station? With the public consultation into closing hundreds of offices up and down the country open until September, would you be sad to see them go? We're asking if you think it's a good idea to shut them down to redistribute staff or will some people struggle without them?
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00:00 I lost my car traveling before this so I needed this ticket desk so I could buy a day ticket
00:06 for the whole travel day.
00:08 I prefer going to the person than to the machine just because I'm not a London regular.
00:13 I think it would be easier if the offices stay open because for example if you've got
00:17 a problem that can only be fixed by a human and obviously if, you know, I've had a few
00:24 experiences where I'm doing the auto message with like OVO or something like that and it
00:29 just, you know, you'll end up with an auto response saying or you'll get connection timed
00:34 out.
00:35 I don't know if that's going to be the same in the offices but I think it's much easier,
00:39 much more beneficial if humans are more present in the offices rather than doing it all over
00:44 a system.
00:45 I don't like the idea that they're shutting train office tickets, train offices, train
00:50 ticket offices because they're really very, very useful.
00:54 Posters went up at train stations across the UK in July asking the public to send in their
00:58 thoughts about potential plans to shut down hundreds of ticket offices.
01:03 Money saving and staff redistribution were cited as reasons for closing but some groups
01:08 raised concerns about possible job cuts and accessibility issues.
01:12 Now the deadline for giving your opinion has been extended to the 1st of September.
01:16 Chairman of Network Rail Lord Peter Hendy said the extension is a really good thing
01:20 for customers because the railway ought to listen to its passengers.
01:24 But what do you think of the proposed plans?
01:27 I would say no because they're older generations so I think we should keep them.
01:31 I mean the last time I used a ticket office was like two years ago.
01:35 And if you've not got a card then you've only got cash I feel like it's easier.
01:40 Same to be honest because I've only really used, if I want a ticket I just get it when
01:45 they train or the wee kiosks that they use.
01:48 But I do agree that a lot of the older generation will still want to go into a booth and talk
01:53 to someone and get it.
01:54 Yeah I think there'll be certain demographics that might struggle to be able to actually
01:57 access tickets.
02:00 We just use train line.
02:01 Yeah we use train line all the time for ourselves.
02:02 I feel like the older population who don't know how to use phones as well will really
02:07 struggle.
02:08 I think that's going to put a lot of people out of work at the end of the day and it's
02:11 like you know I think Britain and Wales needs to be like trying to keep up keeping people
02:16 busy and having jobs at the end of the day.
02:19 I mean not a lot of old people know how to use the apps so that could be a problem at
02:23 the end of the day so I think they should keep the tickets open really for people who
02:28 can't really use apps.
02:29 A machine can't assess what your mood is or you know have any humanity about them and
02:38 I just think that people should be able to.
02:42 I've heard from a lot of people who are learning disabled that want to keep them.
02:46 I think it's very important and people sometimes take a lot longer.
02:51 A person can moderate that, a machine can't.
02:54 It goes at speed and if you've missed it you know it's a cause for a lot of difficulty