This week South-eastern has announced, without any warning, that eight ticket offices in Bexley are being proposed for closure, despite assurances last December that there would be no station ticket office closures. The proposals will affect stations on all three railway lines running through the London Borough of Bexley. If these closures are implemented, they will take place over the next 3 years, especially impacting especially on vulnerable passengers. The stations on the list are:
Albany Park
Barnehurst
Belvedere
Bexleyheath
Erith
Falconwood
Slade Green
Welling
Bexley Labour is encouraging everyone affected by these changes to write to London Travel Watch who are administering this consultation by the 26 th of July 2023 using the details below.
Please also make it clear if you are commenting about all stations or an individual rail station.
Email: Southeastern.Consultation@Londontravelwatch.org.uk
Freepost: RTEH-XAGE_BYKZ
London Travel Watch
PO BOX 5594
SS1 9PZ
Further information can be found on the link below:
Councillor Chris Ball (Erith), Labour group spokesperson for Housing, Environment, Transport, Leisure, and Climate Change said,
“It is not acceptable that there is only 21 days to undertake such a consultation on such an important issue and the technology presently available is not adequate to deal with such a drastic change that will affect many, especially vulnerable passengers.”
Councillor Stefano Borella (Slade Green and Northend ward, Leader of Bexley Labour Group said,
“I am very concerned again that rail services in Bexley are being further downgraded by the potential closure to 8 ticket offices in Bexley and the impact this will have on mobility impaired passengers and the digitally excluded, as the ticket machines do not offer the same level of service and the technology is presently inadequate. This will clearly lead to job losses and is a result of a Conservative government who are asking more cuts from our declining railway”.
Funding cuts from the Conservative government has meant that train services are being reduced overall and means further cuts to ticket offices, it is clear from this latest debacle that this government is managing their failed franchising experiment and that the railways should be brought back into public ownership in the interests of the travelling public.