This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Proposals will see Banbury Train Station ticket office close
05/07/2023
Chiltern says the proposals would help bring station ticket sales up to date
Banbury train station will lose its ticket office under new proposals which have been announced this morning.
Chiltern Railways wants to move to all tickets being purchased online or via mobile apps before arriving at the station. For those unable to do that staff would be available at the station to assist with a ticket purchase from the self-service ticket vending machines.
Existing ticket office staff would move to what the train operator describes as “multi-skilled customer help” roles. They would be based in the public areas of the station where they would be able to provide advice on fares and offer support for customers with accessibility needs.
Chiltern says the proposals would help bring station ticket sales up to date. The rules on how to sell tickets were set in 1995 which they note is before the invention of the smartphone and at a time when 85% of all tickets were sold at ticket offices. Today just 12% of tickets are sold at a ticket office on an average today.
In a statement Chiltern said: “Bringing staff out from offices would allow the railway to respond to that generational shift in customer behaviour, in common with many other industries and organisations that have long since done so, such as Transport for London, most airlines, banks and supermarkets.”
A public consultation on the proposed changes is now underway. Anyone wishing to comment can email Transport Focus (ticketoffice.chiltern@transportfocus.org.uk ), by Wednesday July 26.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam