Save Our Railway Ticket Offices, Western Morning News

Western Morning News – Save Our Railway Ticket Office. The threatened closure of railway station tickets offices across the country was an issue that provoked widespread opposition. However, few areas would have suffered more profoundly from the loss of face-to-face ticket sales than the Westcountry.

The South West region served by the Western Morning News has the highest elderly population in the country and a substantial percentage of train tickets are still bought from station front desks – far in excess of the average 12% which train operators used to justify cost-cutting closures. Close to half of travellers at Barnstaple purchase their tickets from front counters, along with over a third of passengers at Dawlish, Paignton and Penance, and more than a quarter at St Austell, Truro, Torquay, Teignmouth, Exmouth and Truro. The Western Morning News launched a campaign to save our railway ticket offices, leading the fight on behalf of the many thousands of Westcountry passengers alarmed at the prospect of losing their much-valued local station services. We argued that there could be no justification for sweeping away well-used ticket offices with a broad brushstroke approach. Such measures would discriminate against the elderly, disabled and those with vulnerabilities, and act as a deterrent to travel at a time when people are being encouraged to use public transport. Alongside hard-hitting front pages and leader comments, the Western Morning News wrote to every MP in the Westcountry, the Transport Secretary and Rail Minister, as well as the Transport Focus consultation. We urged readers to sign an online petition calling for a House of Commons debate and to have their say as the rail network consultation deadline neared. Final consultation figures showed a huge response from communities in Devon and Cornwall, including more than 2,000 objections to ticket office closures in Penzance and more than 1,000 in Barnstaple alone. In the face of mass opposition alongside objections from transport watchdogs, plans to pull down the blinds on ticket windows were eventually scrapped. It was, as our front page of November 1 described it: ‘A victory for our rail passengers’. Our campaign to save station ticket desks was driven by the genuine concerns of readers, many of whom value personal customer service and are unable, or unwilling, to navigate online purchasing and automated self-service machines. Among many letters, one correspondent wrote: ‘I would like to place on record my gratitude to the WMN for the much-needed leadership that your paper has given on this issue.’ The Western Morning News was determined to do all it could to prevent ill-considered closures that would have affected so many in the Westcountry – and delighted that the groundswell of local and national opposition made a difference in ensuring ticket offices were saved– Charlie Elder, Editor