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South West Trains backs down over Woking stations ticket office opening hours

4 March 2009

Following concerted pressure from members of the public and local politicians, South West Trains has been forced to abandon much of its proposed closures for rail station ticket offices in the Woking area.

Brookwood, Woking and West Byfleet stations will continue with their current opening hours for their ticket offices. Byfleet and Newhaw ticket office will not close on Saturdays as originally proposed but will have a reduced service during the week.

Woking's local MP Humfrey Malins said, "I personally took this issue up with the Secretary of State for the Department of Transport and I also held crises talks with the Managing Director of South West Trains. It is a ridiculous state of affairs to suggest that a machine that cannot provide certain tickets and is unusable to many people could be a sufficient replacement to a properly manned ticket office. I am delighted that, for the most part, they have backed down over these proposals. I have also been assured by the Secretary of State that ticket offices are going to staffed more robustly and there will be no charges for internet or telephone ticket bookings. Yet it is still disappointing that the Government has approved a service reduction at Byfleet and Newhaw station, when the grounds for their assessment were meant to be a service improvement."