Shipley Town Council has submitted its objection to the proposed closure of the ticket office at Shipley train station.
The full letter of objection is below.
Shipley Town Council encourages you to have your say. The public consultation remains open until 11.59pm on 1 September 2023. It can be found at https://www.northernrailway.
Dear Northern Rail,
This response is from Shipley Town Council, a parish council within the Bradford Metropolitan District.
Shipley Town Council strongly objects to proposals to close the ticket offices at Shipley Station, which is managed by Northern.
The main objection is on the grounds that it will make the station and its services far more difficult to access by disabled and digitally excluded passengers. The ticket office is one of the most vital accessibility features of this station; it impacts everything from the ability to buy tickets, receive assistance, access site facilities, navigate the station, plan routes, and feel confident in making journeys.
- Availability of staff, assistance, and facilities
Ticket office staff are often the first point of contact when people arrive at Shipley station. Having staff at a designated place means that disabled passengers know where to go if they require assistance, information, advice, or the unlocking of a facility such as the toilet. If staffing levels are reduced or existing ticket staff redeployed to ‘multifunctional roles’, passengers would lose this crucial point of contact.
Multifunctional staff who roam around the station are not an accessible alternative for disabled people. Disabled people with mobility or energy impairments cannot travel through the station to try and find assistance and blind and visually impaired passengers will struggle to identify a member of staff. Ticket offices are also the only designated point in the station with a hearing induction loop. Many Deaf people will be unable to access the assistance they need without this. The training that these new ‘multifunctional’ roving staff will be given has also not been made clear.
Without the staffed ticket office at Shipley, people would have to rely on finding the Help Point to request assistance. These are often not clearly signposted, or not working, and are inaccessible to many deaf people. A recent audit by the Office of Rail and Road found that only 51% of disabled passengers were able to successfully receive assistance using help points. A system that fails half its users cannot become our only point of access.
Mobile response teams are also not a viable mitigation, especially if Help Points are the only way to get hold of them. The time it takes for these teams to be requested and make their way over will add to the already excessive journey times disabled people face and adds to the uncertainty of whether we will be able to make our train. This is especially an issue at Shipley, as it has an unusual and tricky layout, with passengers having to navigate a large car park to reach two platforms from the ticket office.
- Accessibility of ticketing
Closing ticket offices will require people to purchase tickets through means such as online booking or through Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) at the station. Neither of these options are accessible for many disabled people and apps and online bookings are not accessible for digitally excluded people.
Disabled people are disproportionately represented in the number of people with no access to the internet; 23% of disabled adults had no access to the internet in 2019 compared to just 6% of non-disabled adults. 42% of people over the age of 75 report not using the internet at all. This makes online ticketing inaccessible for some of the most vulnerable people in society.
TTVMs don’t tend to accept cash, which many disabled people often use for accessibility reasons. Some concessions and ticket types are also not available from some TVMs. For example, the 50% wheelchair user discount can only be purchased at ticket offices.
Even if these options were made available at TVMs, they would still not be accessible to disabled people. TVMs lack tactile information and functionality, which is essential for blind and visually impaired passengers, while full height TVMS are positioned out of reach for wheelchair users. They are also very complex to navigate. This means often the correct or cheapest ticket is only available in the ticket office. Some operating companies have said they will include a video call feature on some TVMs so that staff can be called to assist. This does nothing to mitigate the fundamental accessibility issues already outlined. Even then, the proposals suggest these will only be available at some, not all stations.
- Safety and security
Having visible staff at a designated ticket office is also important for passenger safety and security, as they are the location where staff can offer immediate help in an emergency. Disabled people are at a higher risk of having a health-related emergency than non-disabled people. Therefore, disabled people need to know that we can quickly find and identify a member of staff. Other vulnerable people also rely on knowing that there are staff on hand and where to find them if they have a safety concern. Closing the ticket office would make the services at Shipley less safe and less accessible.
Proposing that disabled people rely on Help Points to reach staff assistance in an emergency is not a viable option. As well as the inaccessibility of these Help Points outlined earlier, passengers cannot expect an emergency response if they first have to find a Help Point, be put through to a call centre, and or wait for a mobile team to come to the station and find them. Staff have to be visible and on hand quickly for any meaningful emergency response to be available.
Yours sincerely,
Joe Ashton
Town Clerk
