Back on Monday at the beginning of the last week for Parliament, two MPs asked several questions about Railway Tickets. There was only one question from Julian Knight who is the Conservative MP for Solihull and then there were four questions from the Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle. The person who responded to all of the questions was Huw Merriman who is the Department for Transport Minister and is also the MP for Bexhill and Battle. All of the questions begin with the call “To ask the Secretary of State for Transport,” and then the rest of the questions and the answers for Lloyd are below.

Q1: if he will make an estimate of the number of rail tickets sold through ticket offices in the last 12 months.

A1: In 2022/23, around 1 in 10 transactions occurred at a ticket office; this is down from around 1 in 3 a decade earlier and equates to 13 per cent of total current revenue.

Q2: if he will make an estimate of the number of representations received by his Department (a) for and (b) against its policy on ticket office closures.

Q3: what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of public consultation on his Department’s policy on ticket office closures.

A2&3: Train operators proposing any changes to the opening hours, or the closure of ticket offices, must follow the process set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, which is available to view on the Rail Delivery Group’s website. This is an industry process and consultations are led by each train operator. Train operators are required to put notices at stations advising passengers of any proposals and what changes could mean for them. If passengers have any objections these can be raised via the passenger bodies (Transport Focus and London TravelWatch) for consideration within 21 days of the notice being posted.

Q4: what estimate he has made of the number of potential job losses resulting from ticket office closures.

A4: This is an industry-led process. The outcomes of the consultations will not be known until the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement process has been concluded. Train operating companies will discuss employment matters with the trade unions as part of their own collective bargaining processes.