West of England Metro Mayor Dan Norris has hailed the scrapping of plans to close seven ticket offices in the region as a “huge victory”.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris with campaigners | Photo © Freia Turland
It was announced yesterday, Tuesday 31st October, that the Government had asked train operators to withdraw their proposals for ticket office closures across the country.
Hailing the U-turn, Mr Norris, a long-term opponent of the plans, said: “It’s the end of the line for these botched Conservative Government plans.
“This is a huge victory for West of England passengers, who delivered their message loud and clear that closing all our ticket offices is unacceptable.”
The plans would have seen the closure of all the West’s ticket offices, where an estimated 600,000 paper tickets were sold last year.
This includes at Bristol Temple Meads, where 260,000 tickets were sold in booths, Bath Spa where 212,000 were distributed, and Keynsham Parkway where a combined 117,000 were sold in ticket offices.
It was revealed that 2,245 formal objections were made by West of England residents.
Mr Norris continued: “Every proposal to modernise our railways needs passengers at its heart.
“We must do everything possible to encourage more people onto trains here in the West, and across the country.
“Never again should Ministers support a plan to put barriers in the way to make that job harder.”
