POSSIBLE ticket office closures will cause “major disruption” at Slough train station, according to political leaders.

In a joint letter to GWR managing director Mark Hopwood, council leader James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) and Cllr Mohammed Nazir (Lab: Baylis & Stoke), lead member for transport, raised concerns about the company’s potential plans to close rail ticket offices from Reading to Paddington.

According to the RMT, over 1,000 ticket offices across the country are at risk of opening hour cuts or closures. However, Rail bosses have said no final decision has been made but are looking at migrating the service to digital technology.

Cllrs Swindlehurst and Nazir fear the ticket office closures at Slough train station, as well as in Burnham and Langley, will cause “major disruption” and will “disproportionately affect” the elderly and vulnerable as well as people with poor literacy or IT skills that need help from an employee.

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They wrote: “Closing essential ticket offices, especially in towns like Slough where the stations remain busy all day, means missing out on providing travellers with the most suitable ticket for a given journey.

“Amidst a complex fares system and high penalty charges, passengers are likely to be more anxious in buying the exact ticket they need and will be looking more than usual for human resources.

“Ticket offices also provide a friendly and comforting alternative to those unfamiliar with using the required technology to purchase tickets.

“In many cases, travellers find themselves adept with the technology but find that TVMs [ticket vending machines] come short when accepting cash or providing certain railway tickets such as Rail Rover ones.

“Many Slough residents have English as their second language and so are less proficient at reading it. Has there been an EIA [equality impact assessment] to see if residential areas commuters on the route will be more seriously impacted?”

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They also urged rail bosses to improve their digital technology, such as making their websites easier to use for passengers to purchase a ticket, before any closures take place.

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said: “The pandemic has been an unprecedented financial shock to the railway.

“While no decisions have been taken over ticket offices, with the acceleration of changing travel patterns and more passengers migrating to digital technology, many jobs will need to change to become more passenger-centric.

“Train companies want to work with unions on how to address those changes, while making sure the industry takes no more than its fair share from the taxpayer.”