GREAT Western Railway is urging rail users to have their say on a public consultation which would see ticket office staff moved to other areas of the station
Great Western Railway is consulting on proposals to move ticket office staff into other areas of the station, as transactions at its ticket offices drop below 15 per cent. The consultation closes on Wednesday (July 26).
A new role, based on the existing station multi-skilled roles already in place on the GWR network since 2007, would be created to allow staff to help more customers with a wider range of issues.
Instead of being confined to just one area, these roles would be able to help customers in many more ways – including those with additional accessibility needs – wherever they are on the station.
The Passenger Assist programme – which helps disabled and mobility-impaired customers navigate stations and board trains – will not be affected by the changes.
A spokesperson for GWR said:
“Digital tickets and mobile phones means our ticket office staff are helping around half the number of people they did in 2019. It makes sense to move staff where they can be more help to more customers, and provide more training to help with a wider range of issues– like assisting those with reduced mobility through stations and onto our trains.
“This consultation is designed to allow the public to test and examine our proposals, and make sure our plans are compliant with the safeguards put in place at privatisation so that the needs of customers will still be met.”
Those who wish to have a say should visit: www.GWR.com/haveyoursay and follow the links to either Transport Focus or London TravelWatch, who are independently running the consultation, by Wednesday
