Berwick Railway Station ticket office set to close

Last year, a drastic reduction in opening times at the travel centre came into effect.

And now LNER has announced that Berwick is one of its stations, others in the North East include Darlington and Durham, where it plans to ‘repurpose travel centres, with colleagues supporting customers on the stations and proposals to create a modern station retailing experience’.

But Georgina Hill, Berwick East councillor and rail campaigner, believes it will negatively impact a significant number of rail users.

Speaking before the plans were confirmed, she said: “However they try to dress this up and conduct sham consultations, this is a measure to reduce staffing costs to the huge detriment of customer service and passenger experience.

“No thought is being given to the elderly, those with learning and other difficulties or those who just want to speak to a human being when they are navigating their travel options.”

Independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus will facilitate a public consultation, which has now started and will run until July 26.

Berwick North county councillor Catherine Seymour, also speaking before the plans were confirmed, said: “This is very disappointing news if our railway station ticket office is slated for closure and I have written to LNER and asked for support from our MP to get some comfort that this will not be the case and to keep it open.

“This is a very busy cross border station and we have many members of the public that rely on the good service that the Berwick staff provide at the station – and we have had to cope already with the hours reduced in the ticket office last year, so closure would be the final nail.”

Last year, analysis by the RMT suggested that more than 1,000 ticketing offices in the country across 15 different operators were at risk and it claimed this would lead to redundancies. The Rail Delivery Group confirmed today (Wednesday) that operators “across the country are launching passenger consultations to move staff from ticket offices and into stations”.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “The decision to close up to 1,000 ticket offices and to issue hundreds of redundancy notices to staff is a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public.

“Travellers will be forced to rely on apps and remote mobile teams to be available to assist them rather than having trained staff on stations.”

David Horne, managing director at LNER, said: “Our customers’ habits have changed, and we must plan for the needs of our future customers.

“We want everyone to enjoy an even better experience when travelling with LNER.

“Our proposals for each of our stations will bring our people closer to our customers, improve accessibility and make good use of the hand-held technology and digital systems that we have pioneered in the rail industry.

“I would encourage people to share their views on our proposals as part of the public consultation.”

Jacqueline Starr, Rail Delivery Group chief executive, said: “The ways our customers buy tickets has changed and it’s time for the railway to change with them.”

To submit feedback directly about the Berwick proposals, email [email protected]