Alnmouth railway station groups welcome extension of ticket office consultation period

The deadline has been extended by five and a half weeks, to September 1, to give passengers more chance to give their views.

Peter Groves, founder and committee member of Alnmouth Railway Users Group (ARUG), said: “The original three weeks did appear unusually short.

"ARUG therefore welcomes the extension and would encourage all rail users who have concerns about this ill-conceived proposal to take a few minutes to write to Northern Trains, Transport Focus and Ann Marie Trevelyan MP and raise your concerns and objection to the proposals”.

Feedback can be given online at any local train company website, or visit the website of independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus.

Katherine Challis, chair of Friends of Alnmouth Station (FAS), added: “It’s good news that the consultation period has been extended and I would encourage everyone who uses Alnmouth Station to submit their views to Transport Focus. In my volunteer role with FAS I am frequently at the station and have witnessed the valuable service that the ticket office staff provide.

“Northern’s proposal to leave the station unstaffed after 13.00 Monday to Saturday, a reduction of five hours per day, is not the way to encourage rail travel and will surely result in a poorer quality of service by making it more difficult for many passengers to buy best-value rail tickets and limiting their access to station facilities such as passenger assistance.”

Northern has revealed that only one in six journeys on its services are purchased through a ticket office.