Two disabled rail users have launched a legal challenge to the rail industry’s plans to close hundreds of rail ticket offices across England over the next three years, as more details emerge of the impact of the closures on passengers.
Sarah Leadbetter, who is registered blind, and Doug Paulley, a wheelchair user who has hearing loss, claim that the consultation on the plans is unlawful and discriminates against disabled people.
They argue giving people just 21 days to respond to some of the biggest changes to railway operations for a generation is inadequate and breaches legal requirements for such consultations.
They add that the format of the consultation is inaccessible to many disabled people and lacks information about how the changes may affect them.
They also argue that the consultation is unlawful because, while it should have been carried out when the proposals are still at formative stage, statutory redundancy notices have already been issued to staff.
The pair, who are represented by law firm Leigh Day, are calling for train operating companies (TOCs), and the transport secretary, to end the current consultation process and reconsult in a manner which complies with his consultation and equality duties.
Ms Leadbetter said: ‘People like me, with visual impairments, rely on ticket offices and their staff to help us when we’re travelling and their closure will be a huge blow. To hold a consultation that fails to properly hear the views of those who need assistance the most is woefully inadequate. The government should scrap this unfair process and come up one that gives rail passengers with disabilities an equal say.'
Kate Egerton, senior associate at Leigh Day, said: ‘The rail industry’s consultation on the plans to close railway ticket offices across the country, which is overseen by the Department for Transport, is, in our view, clearly unlawful and not fit for purpose.’
Disability charity Scope said it was also concerned about the short consultation timeframe, adding that 'there is also a lack of accessibility around the consultation process [that] creates more barriers that prevent disabled people from having their say'.
The Association of British Commuters (ABC) has challenged claims made by the government that ‘no currently staffed station will become unstaffed’, which is based on assertions by TOCs.
It said consultation documents show that 78 more stations would become unstaffed at West Midlands Trains (WMT) and 16 at East Midlands Railway (EMR).
The ABC said it is impossible to say whether this region is worse than any other, as operators have ‘disguised the scale of stealth destaffing taking place’.
Transport Network approached WMT and EMR for comment. EMR did not dispute the ABC’s claims; a spokesperson acknowledged that with many stations visited only daily or weekly, they will be unstaffed ‘for periods’.
The ABC has also severely criticised the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for refusing to say whether it will intervene over the impact on rail station destaffing on disabled people, since it wrote to the watchdog last August.
At that time the EHRC told Transport Network it was carefully considering the ABC’s letter and would respond ‘in due course’. Invited to respond to the ABC’s complaint that it had still not done so, the watchdog declined to provide an explanation.
A spokesperson said the EHRC was ‘working… to ensure disabled people receive fair and equal access to travel’ but declined to explain how it would ensure this, whether it believes that disabled people currently receive fair and equal access to travel or, if not, when it might ensure this.
ABC co-founder Emily Yates said: ‘Doug Paulley and Sarah Leadbetter are doing millions of people a great public service, and it is outrageous that disabled activists have had to undertake this case while stakeholders and regulators stay silent.’
The Urban Transport Group (UTG), which represents city region transport authorities, said that while it is are not opposed to changing staffing provision at stations, it has ‘significant concerns about the current proposals’, including the consultation process.
It said the consultation process as it has been run so far goes against the Government’s commitment to devolution and levelling up, as it had little or no notice of the proposed changes and no opportunity to influence them.
It added that it was ‘particularly concerned that Equality Impact Assessments of the proposals do not seem to have been conducted in all cases’.
In addition, the UTG pointed out that many TOCs are proposing reductions in staffing hours at stations, ‘meaning ticket office staff who are being lost, are not being replaced like-for-like’.
Passenger watchdog Transport Focus, which is facilitating the consultation, said its role is to receive and collate comments/objections from passengers/public, while it is TOCs’ responsibility to prepare the content of the consultation documentation, display the necessary posters at stations and to ensure this information is available and accessible to all.
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