Consultation ends on plans to cut rail ticket office hours

[dutchman]

A consultation ended today on London Midland’s plans to cut opening hours at 5 ticket offices in Coventry and Warwickshire to try to save cash.



The firm says the amount of people using them’s dropped to such a level that in the case of 8 stations it’s not worth them having an office there at all.

86 ticket offices would be affected, including 5 here – Berkswell, Canley, Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton and Tile Hill – with all three Coventry stations set to lose their office on Sundays.

Bosses are set to bring in 29 new self-service machines.

Around 80 jobs could also be lost.

Commercial Director Alex Hynes said: “We have looked carefully at how our ticket offices are being used and we now want to ensure that they are even more efficient and meet more closely the needs of our passengers.”

“We are proposing a whole range of changes to our ticket office opening times, from minor changes of a couple of hours to recommending the closure of nine ticket offices.”

“I want to reassure all of our passengers that London Midland will be taking action to ensure that our high standards of customer service will not be compromised by any changes we eventually make to our ticket office opening hours.”

The RMT union is calling the move “barbaric”.

West Midlands transport authority Centro believe the changes will happen as soon as July and have sent a letter of opposition to Transport Minister Theresa Villiers.

Chairman, Councillor Angus Adams said: “Their rationale for deciding changes fails to take into account the wider benefits of staff presence at stations, including the critically important role in reassuring passengers.”

“We have made it clear to London Midland that were we a co-signatory to the franchise agreement the Integrated Transport Authority would not approve these changes.”

Click here for details on changes.