Closing ticket offices could be illegal, says Greater Manchester mayor

Plans to close rail station ticket offices could be illegal, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has said.

Train companies have announced plans to shut hundreds of ticket offices in England over the next three years.

About 50 tickets offices in Greater Manchester are set to close, including Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport and Wigan North Western.

A Department for Transport spokesman said staff will move into "more active" roles to "support all passengers".

Mr Burnham said the move would "further destroy" trust in rail services in the north of England.

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, he said: "This is really wrong on so many levels, but we're going to take a stand.

"I will be writing to the Transport Secretary today and I think it is likely, in my view, that there's a strong case that this process is not legal."

A 21-day public consultation was launched this week to gather passengers' views on the move.

Mr Burnham said the impact of the proposal on older and disabled people had not been assessed and he would be writing to the government to call for the consultation to be halted, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"The provisional advice I've got is that the train operators, one of them in particular, should have done, again, a provisional equality impact assessment," he said.

"Particularly for the impact on older people or disabled people who will probably be the most impacted by this decision. They didn't do it."

Mr Burnham said ticket office staff provide advice for passengers, reassurance for older people and help for disabled people at train stations.

He said if he cannot stop the closures, he would be making the case again for local stations to be run by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM.

The Department of Transport said those with accessibility needs "are always supported".

A spokesman said: "This is not about cutting jobs - no station which is currently staffed will be unstaffed as a result of these proposed reforms. We have been consistently honest about the need for our railways to modernise if they are going to survive."

Mr Burnham confirmed the ticket office at Horwich Parkway train station, which is already controlled by TfGM, will not be closing as part of the proposals.

Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, has said only 12% of tickets were sold at ticket offices last year with the rest bought online or from vending machines. It said the changes would be phased in gradually.

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