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News and Comment July 2023

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22 July (Part 1) - Railway Ticket Office closures

 The Transport Users’ Sub-Committee is almost certainly the most interesting of meetings to Bexley residents because its subject matter affects everyone. Bus issues, a report by whoever is running the railways on the day, policing of the networks, accidents, potholes and utilities with their constant endeavour to bring the borough to a standstill. It should be webcast.

But if it was I would miss its friendly atmosphere. The three Conservative Councillors, Richard Diment, June Slaughter and Cameron Smith all greeted me by first name and no one complained when my phone audibly alarmed at 9 p.m. because I had forgotten that Alarms take precedence over Mute.

Probably I would have spoken to Labour Councillor Sally Hinkley too but she was in Uxbridge to watch her party being defeated in the Uxbridge by-election by Sadiq Khan.

After the ritual of choosing Cameron to be Chairman - which is odd given that he is listed as such on the Council website - the first item discussed was the plan to close railway ticket offices. I should perhaps declare a small interest here because not long ago I needed to buy a ticket to Cambridge and my research said the price would be £19 from the Freedom Pass boundary.

In the event I didn’t get around to buying in advance and found myself at the ticket office at Liverpool Street station. “Two returns from the the boundary to Cambridge please.”

“You don’t want to do that.” “Why not?” “Because that would cost £38 but there is a special offer for couples. From Liverpool Street to Cambridge is two for £22.”

A couple of years ago the ticket machine at Paddington wanted to charge me £50 when there was a one day only special offer at the ticket office and I saved £30.

Transport Sub-Committee meetingHowever, having listened to the Southeastern presentation I began to think things may not be too bad. The various managers on Zoom were keen to point out that every Train Operating Company is doing their own thing and one should not assume that the bad things highlighted by the news media would apply locally. They are collecting all the worst aspects and lumping them together to frighten people.

The present situation at Bexley’s various stations is that between 81 and 87% of journeys are paid with Contactless/Oyster cards with between 3 and 7% at the ticket office. Ticket office sales across the Metro network vary from 13 to 29 a day. There will be no staff hours reductions, in fact a few increases. At stations due to lose their ticket offices, former ticket sellers with their wealth of expertise will be redeployed to help passengers at the Ticket Vending Machines (TVM) and elsewhere.

I did wonder for how long that wealth of expertise would exist as the specialists were gradually diluted into the general station staff which includes cleaners.

Unlike some other TOCs, Southeastern will not employ roaming teams staffing stations on a rota system. Their staff will be permanently allocated to their station and some of the larger stations will be provided with Travel Centres providing a full range of services. (London Bridge and Dartford.)

Passenger assistance, 42,000 requests last year, will be available by telephone 24/7 in order to book a two hour support window for vulnerable travellers.


Closure map Councillor June Slaughter asked how many stations are unstaffed and was told it was 27 permanently unstaffed and 142 staffed which does not include places like Belvedere which currently has vacancies. The 27 will not be increased.

Councillor Chris Ball for Labour pressed further on the matter of staff reductions and was told that only the very largest stations will see any. “Would refunds and warrants be handled by TVMs?” No, except perhaps at London Bridge but Delay Repay can be done on the App. He was content when assured that displacing ticket staff to other roles would not cause anyone else to lose their jobs.

Councillor Richard Diment asked the Freedom Pass boundary question which might have affected my journey to Cambridge. A TVM software upgrade will allow any station to any other station fares to be purchased. Quick thinking Richard asked how a traveller would know the name of the boundary station on any route to which Southeastern had no answer.

“What is going to happen to the disused ticket offices?’ No decision yet. Could be shops, Network Rail store rooms, community space or staff welfare rooms.

A series of consultations by London Travel Watch is underway and the first is for a batch of 40 stations (orange on the map). The consultation will close on 26th July with more to come later. If the 40 Ticket Offices are closed it will happen in the new year.

Abbey Wood is a TfL managed station and for the time being at least, is safe.

A few minutes were devoted to railway performance figures but Southeastern is easily pleased. Last Saturday I returned from Dartford on one of the two remaining Southeastern trains per hour. It sat for about six minutes at Slade Green and still arrived at Abbey Wood dead on time. They take us for mugs.

 

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