Labour criticises ‘rushed’ plans to shut hundreds of rail ticket offices in England

Labour has criticised “rushed” plans to close hundreds of railway station ticket offices across England, warning it could exacerbate the “managed decline of our rail network”.

Train operators will begin closing offices on Wednesday, in a move that will dismay vulnerable passengers and inflame the continuing dispute with unions.

The industry body representing the firms, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), will announce public consultations, the first step in a formal process that is likely to close the majority of almost 1,000 offices within the next three years.

The transport secretary, Mark Harper, is understood to have pushed rail firms into moving ahead as the dispute with rail unions over “modernisation” remains unresolved.

Train operators are directly contracted by the government and have been ordered to find huge cost savings to make up for fare revenue lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic and changes to travel patterns.

Although staff have been told they will be redeployed to other customer service positions on the stations, guarantees attached to pay offers against compulsory redundancies will expire next year.

About 12% of tickets are bought at ticket office windows – down from about 85% in 1995 – but campaigners and unions argue the offices are particularly valued and used by elderly, disabled and other vulnerable passengers.

The government will push for more people to use self-service machines, contactless payments or buy tickets online. Another 53 stations in south-east England were added to London’s Oyster and contactless network, ministers announced on Tuesday, with more pilot schemes to follow in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

Labour called the news “deeply worrying”. In a letter to Harper, the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, warned: “The rushed closure of ticket offices without proper consideration for the wellbeing of staff or vulnerable passengers could contribute further to the managed decline of our rail network.”

She said disabled people in particular could struggle without physical ticket offices, while creating digital alternatives “was moving at a snail’s pace on your watch”.

Ticket offices have been a sticking point in the long-running pay dispute including repeated strike action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union. The union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, last week vowed to vigorously oppose closures, warning he would “bring into effect the full industrial force of the union to stop any plans” rather than “allow thousands of jobs to be sacrificed or see disabled and vulnerable passengers left unable to use the railways as a result”.

The smaller Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association union, which has accepted a pay deal but continues to oppose closures, said the move was “totally unnecessary”. Its interim general secretary, Peter Pendle, said: “Ministers will soon realise that the public have no desire to see their rail network diminished in this way.”

The RDG did not confirm the timings of Wednesday’s expected announcement but a spokesperson said negotiations over planned changes had stalled and the industry was “now looking at how to move forward”. They said any changes would be subject to consultations and staff “would be the first to know”.