Railway Station Ticket Office Closures
The Battersea Society object strongly to the limited consultation on the proposal to close so many ticket offices and to the obscure manner in which that consultation has taken place. In particular we are concerned that Clapham Junction, the largest interchange station in the country and one which also has a very high level of passengers directly travelling from the station, would, under current proposals, be without any ticket office at all.
At Clapham Junction the only notice appeared to be a small South Western Trains notice to one side of the entry gates at the main entrance to the station. None of the companies have shown the information on the front page of their websites; it can only be found by delving through their news pages (via links at the bottom, not the top of their front pages); and then the reader has to detect that 'improvements to customer services' or 'station changes' or 'improving our retail offer' actually means closing ticket offices. Southern, says absolutely nothing about Clapham Junction, there is no poster, and no mention of Clapham Junction in any of its documentation, even among the list of stations 'managed by other operators but on our network'.
It is essential that at least one ticket office remains open at Clapham Junction. Clapham Junction has three passenger entry points - the main entrance off St John's Hill, Brighton Yard, an increasingly important access point given new development opposite and to the north Grant Road with direct access to the heavily used Overground and the gateway to new development on the Winstanley Estate and in York Road. While the ticket office at the Grant Road entrance closed a few years ago there has, until very recently, been a ticket office at the other two entrances. There has also been in the past an information desk at the main entrance, that was withdrawn some years ago. Just last Autumn Network Rail stated that, while the Brighton Yard office would be closed, a ticket office at the St John's Hill main entrance would be retained. Reneging on that commitment is not acceptable.
The main ticket office has always been an invaluable source of guidance for local rail travellers seeking advice on the best routes and fares to take. Because of Clapham Junction’s location on the rail system it is not always obvious what the options are and which best suits one's needs. Machines cannot easily offer this advice for advance trips and/or when travelling through other terminals in London where breaking a journey en route to stop and buy tickets (presumably also from a machine) would be burdensome. Many travellers are less familiar or able to navigate online booking sites and purchase online tickets especially where the route is unfamiliar.
While we support in-station staff who guide and advise travellers on times and platforms for trains, they cannot replace one-to one advice on travel options, ideally at a counter or kiosk. Generalist support staff cannot replace informed guidance on best routes. Well informed ticket office staff have been, and should remain, a dedicated source of travel options.
It is essential that a fuller and more transparent consultation is undertaken involving users, local businesses and community groups. More background must be provided giving greater details and justification for closure of ticket offices and what kind of in-station service and advice will be offered as an alternative, especially for advance bookings. All closures should be halted until this has been done, including much fuller consideration of the social impact of these proposals.