Shocking analysis shows how Greater Manchester and the North will be hit hardest by railway ticket office closures

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had a ready answer this week when asked about the plans to shut nearly all railway ticket offices in England amid pressure from the Government to cut costs. "This is actually fundamentally, as far as I understand it, about getting people out of ticket offices onto platforms and in stations where they can help people in different ways, which is where the help is required," he told reporters during his trip to India. Read more: The Greater Manchester town where too many feel 'trapped' - and the one thing that could change it But this explanation is looking increasingly hard to defend, particularly in Greater Manchester and the wider North, where passengers are more likely than average to buy their ticket at a ticket office rather than online.

The figure is one in six in the North versus one in eight nationally. And new analysis shows the region's biggest rail operator, Northern, is planning to slash the number of staff it employs to assist passengers at stations if the fiercely-opposed plans go through.

Transport for the North, the body which brings together the region's leaders to speak with one voice, says state-run Northern currently provides more than 10,900 hours a week of ticket office staffing across 141 stations.

This will fall to about 4,500 once the new 'journey-makers' take their place. The report says: "It is clear that under these plans, customers in the North would be left substantially worse off compared to other parts of the country; for example, although Great Western are planning to eventually close all of their ticket offices, 78% of their stations will retain their current hours of staffed operation, as compared to fewer than 3% of Northern’s stations." Their findings are