Southeastern, the train operator serving Kent, Sussex and south east London is reminding customers and stakeholders they’ve got seven days left to respond to proposals on the future of 40 of their London-located ticket offices.
Southeastern’s proposals want to make more staff available to assist customers face-to-face, for those that need help, and to provide more popular technology (like e-tickets and Pay-As-You-Go) for those happy to self-serve.
As part of its proposals Southeastern has published Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) to protect the interests of customers with accessibility needs, full details of when it is proposed each station will be staffed and details of five stations that will be staffed that currently are not.
Train operators throughout England are consulting on the future of ticket offices as part of plans to modernise. Southeastern’s consultation is being conducted in two phases – which it is hoped will give everyone who wants to, sufficient opportunity to respond to their proposals.
The first phase of the consultation seeks views on the future of ticket offices at 40 Southeastern ticket offices that sell on average fewer than 50 tickets daily. Within that number, many sell 10 or fewer. The second phase of the consultation planned for later this year, will see consultation on the rest of Southeastern’s stations.
The changes will be underpinned by the rollout of digital technology, now commonplace in other industries. More than ever, people buy train tickets online, on smartphones, with contactless technology, on apps, or the internet – conveniently and without a queue. Southeastern wants that to be the norm for their customers too for those customers happy to self serve. Five million e-tickets are now sold every week by train companies and retailers like Trainline. As Southeastern continue to roll out more e-ticket routes, this number is expected to continue growing.
Enhanced customer support at stations
If the proposed changes are approved, then all stations currently staffed will remain so and Southeastern will ensure everyone currently working in ticket offices will have support and training to transition to new roles where they will be able to provide a full range of customer support, including helping people with accessibility as well as keeping everyone safe.
Steve White, Managing Director of Southeastern, said:
“There’s just a week left to respond to the consultation on the future of 40 ticket offices in our Metro (London) area. Your views about your local station matter to us and the best way for you to be heard is by responding to this consultation.
"We’re committed to this process being transparent and meaningful. That’s why you can find full details of our proposals including the times at which stations will be staffed, a list of currently unstaffed stations would be re-staffed and crucially, Equality Impact Assessments to protect the interests of customers with accessibility needs.
“We really want to encourage as many people as possible to share their views with London TravelWatch in this phase of consultation.
“We believe the changes we are proposing will deliver a better, safer and more accessible railway at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
Subject to the results consultation, these changes are expected to be phased over a two-year period. The second phase of the consultation is expected to launch in the Autumn.
