Andy Burnham says railway ticket office closure consultation extension not enough
Andy Burnham says an extension to a period of public consultation launched over plans to close nearly all the UK's railway station ticket offices is not enough.
He said: "This is finally some recognition that the three-week consultation period is a completely flawed process. You cannot take away thousands of ticket offices from our communities having only carried out a three-week consultation for 21 days. "And this is just the start of the fight. I am completely opposed to the plans to close almost every ticket office. This will isolate passengers and drive people away from rail at a time where in the North, confidence in services couldn't be lower. I will be fighting against these changes all the way."
Mr Burnham said they referenced set out requirements under Section 29 of the Railway Act 2005 involving what he called 'a very clear and detailed process which must be followed if a train operating company proposes to close a station or any part of a station'. Transport Salaried Staffs Association joint interim general secretary Peter Pendle said: "Three weeks was never long enough for a meaningful consultation and I’m glad to see the Government backing down on that.
"In addition to these proposals, the rail industry continues to roll out improvements to ticketing such as pay as you go and single leg pricing."
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