Rail staff to have hours cut as plan is given go-ahead (From Ledbury Reporter)

Rail staff to have hours cut as plan is given go-ahead

10:06am Monday 24th September 2012 in News

RAIL commuters will be buying more tickets from machines after a cut in staffing hours was given the Government green light.

Passengers using Malvern Link station will see big reductions in the opening hours at the ticket booth, in the mornings and afternoons.

Passengers will have to rely more heavily on automatic ticket machines.

London Midland, which runs Malvern’s two stations, applied to the Department for Transport for permission to ring the changes, receiving the go ahead this week.

Malvern’s MP Harriett Baldwin said her lobbying of government had “reduced”

the cuts being brought in, particularly at Malvern Link.

She said people “still appreciated the opportunity” to buy a ticket from an informed member of staff, rather than a machine, or on the internet.

Malvern Link currently has a staffed ticket office from 6.25am until 6.35pm, weekdays, and 7.05am to 2.20pm on Saturdays – the booth is shut on Sundays.

This will change to 6.30am to 1pm openings on Mondays to Thursdays, 6.30am to 6pm on Fridays, and 8am to 2pm on Saturdays – an overall cut of more than 20 hours through the week.

At Great Malvern, a 6am opening time marks a change to a slightly earlier time, but the booths will shut at 5pm, an hour earlier than is currently the case.

Elsewhere, London Midland is to cut Worcester’s Shrub Hill ticket office openings by about 47 hours overall across the week.

There will be no changes at Worcester Foregate Street station, which is also run by the rail operator.