Ticket offices consultation

Ticket Office Consultation Update - Transport Focus Response to Proposals

Earlier this year, TransPennine Express, alongside other train operating companies, launched a public consultation regarding proposed changes to the way we provide customer service at stations.

At the heart of the proposals was a desire to make frontline colleagues more accessible and available to customers, responding to changes in customers’ buying habits – last year, across our stations only eight per cent of customers bought their tickets at a TPE ticket office and some of our ticket offices currently handle on average fewer than six transactions per hour. 

As part of the original consultation proposal, set out below, we outlined plans to close 14 ticket offices and amend the opening times of two ticket offices.  We also proposed adjustments to reduce staffing times at nine stations based on customer demand data, focusing station staffing at the busiest times of the day.
Throughout the consultation period, which closed on 1 September, TPE regularly met with Transport Focus to discuss feedback and provide additional information in response to their questions.  

Following discussions with Transport Focus, we amended our original proposals to maintain current staffing hours at every TPE managed station.  This means we are no longer proposing reduced staffing times at Brough, Cleethorpes, Dewsbury, Grimsby Town, Malton, Northallerton, Scunthorpe, Stalybridge or Thornaby.  

Transport Focus has now completed its review of the public feedback, together with information and data we provided, and its assessment of our proposals against the criteria set out in the Ticket and Settlement Agreement (TSA)*.

Today, 31 October, Transport Focus has published its response to our proposals, alongside our recent correspondence, which demonstrates how we have adjusted our proposals to take account of the consultation feedback.

Despite the revisions to our plans, Transport Focus has objected to all our proposals.  Transport Focus has confirmed our specific station proposals meet many of the criteria set around staffing, information and safety.  However, they have highlighted several industry-wide issues, such as the design and implementation of Welcome Points; monitoring and review mechanisms, including industry agreed queuing time targets for TVMs; and future regulation for material changes in station staffing, as reasons for their objections to our proposals.
  
The full details of Transport Focus’s response to our proposals can be accessed here: Train station ticket office consultation - Transport Focus

We are grateful for the feedback from our colleagues, customers and stakeholders on our proposals, which helped shape our plans. On the basis of the feedback from Transport Focus we will not be taking these proposals forward and this consultation process is now closed.

* The Ticketing and Settlement Agreement (TSA) sets out the process for making changes to ticket office opening times and closure of ticket offices.  For further information regards the process and criteria which Transport Focus, as our passenger watchdog, uses to assess proposals please see the following links:

Secretary of State for Transport's Ticketing and Settlement Agreement ticket office guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Transport Focus’s role in assessing major changes to ticket office opening hours - Transport Focus

Modernising customer service at ticket offices

Public consultation - now closed

Between Wednesday, 05 July and Friday, 01 September 2023, customers were invited to comment to transport watchdog Transport Focus on proposals made by rail operators about how tickets are sold and to improve customer service. 

We are now working with Transport Focus to review your feedback and will keep you updated on the next steps. We would like to thank you for taking part.

Below, you will find further information on the public consultation that was live between Wednesday 05 July to Friday 01 September:

On Wednesday, 05 July, TPE launched a consultation on proposed changes to how it sells tickets and provides customer service at its staffed stations.
 
TransPennine Express (TPE), along with train operating companies across England, launched a public consultation regarding proposals to modernise how we sell tickets and provide customer service at our staffed stations. Our plans responded to a significantly reduced use of ticket offices over the past decade, as customers continue to move to alternative, more convenient ways of buying tickets. 
 
 We want our staff to be more accessible to customers during the hours our stations are staffed. We therefore proposed that ticket office staff move to multi-skilled, customer service roles where they would be better able to give advice about the best and cheapest fares, support customers with accessibility needs and help customers board and alight from trains.
 
This more modern approach to customer service means the traditional ticket office is no longer required. Our staff will be able to help customers purchase tickets on the concourse and provide a greater level of assistance outside the ticket office during staffed hours.
 
 With an average of only 8% of transactions for journeys to/from our staffed stations taking place at TPE Ticket Offices, we proposed to make changes at all our 16 staffed stations as follows:

• Closure of ticket offices at 14 stations
• Changes to ticket office opening times at Manchester Airport and Huddersfield
• Changes to station staffing times at nine of our staffed stations 

We proposed that there would be no change to station opening times, and all stations that are currently staffed will remain staffed.
 
Customers would still be able to access the same products and services they do today, either at the station or through other channels, including the TPE website, mobile app or customer contact centre.
 
 We outlined that we would continue to meet all our commitments to providing accessibility assistance for our customers, including those with reduced mobility and people requiring in-person assistance. Full details on how we would provide this can be found below.
 

The consultation document sets out further details on our proposals and demonstrates how:

• Customers will still have widespread easy access to be able to purchase rail products either at the station or via other channels
• Customers will know when staff are scheduled to be at the station if they require staff assistance
• Customers will continue to be able to access other station facilities, such as waiting rooms and toilets, as currently provided
• Customers can continue to use our stations confidently and safely to access the rail network
• Customers with accessibility needs will continue to be supported to be able to access rail services in line with our Accessible Transport Policy

We also developed an Equality Impact Assessment for each affected station. These assessments are working documents and will be amended to reflect the feedback that has been received from the consultation. Each individual assessment can be found in the station drop-downs below.

For more detail on why the rail industry is consulting on changes to station retailing, please visit the Rail Delivery Group website: http://raildeliverygroup.com/customer-focused-stations

You can download a large print version of the consultation document here.
You can download an easy read version of the consultation document here.

See below for the British Sign Language version of the consultation.