Halloween is right time to bury ticket office plan, says MP

Government reverse ferrets on closures

Torbay MP Kevin Foster says Halloween is the right time to banish the spectre of closure hanging over railway station ticket offices in the bay.

It has been announced today that the planned closure of ticket offices at Paignton and Torquay has been cancelled, along with those elsewhere in the country, after public protests. 

Whilst transactions from ticket offices have dropped below 15 per cent of sales nationally, the number of passengers still using ticket offices in Torbay much higher.

At Paignton Station more than 40 per cent of tickets are sold over the counter.

Torbay councillor and rail enthusiast John Fellows (Con, Goodrington with Roselands) joined Mr Foster to raise a petition opposing the closure of the Paignton office. The Torbay MP also spoke out in the House of Commons on the issue.

In the summer he denied a claim of ‘hypocrisy’ from political opponents who said he had launched his campaign for the bay’s stations while endorsing the nationwide package of closures in the House of Commons while serving as a transport minister.

He said there was no conflict, and Paignton’s situation was very different to some other stations nationwide where in-person ticket sales had plummeted.

He said: “It’s apt that Halloween has brought news that the spectre of closure which had been hanging over Paignton and Torquay ticket offices has been cancelled.

“The way customers use our stations is changing, yet the ticket office at Paignton is not underused and the lack of any alternative indoor passenger facilities at Torquay, left customers and station staff facing the ghoulish prospect of standing on the platform in all weathers to buy a ticket from a machine located next to the station’s bin.

“I hope what we can now see come forward are clearer plans for how passengers’ needs will be incorporated into plans for future ticket sales, including major changes at Torquay Station to provide indoor ticket purchasing facilities on the up platform where virtually all passengers depart from.”