Southeastern has announced a consultation – to be conducted by London TravelWatch and Transport Focus – on the future of ticket offices.

The aim of the consultation is to discuss if more station staff are needed to help customers face-to-face, and to consider the popular self-service technology for buying tickets.

London TravelWatch will conduct the consultation for ticket offices in the London area, whilst Transport Focus will conduct it for all others.

People who want to respond to the consultation are being asked to do so by September 1, 2023.

Southeastern has confirmed an extension to the consultation period for the future of ticket offices, which was previously announced on July 5, 2023.

The move hopes to “bust queues” for tickets at stations, as well as making more people available to help customers directly.

The consultation is happening because of the increase of people buying their train tickets online, on smartphones, with contactless, on apps, or the internet.

According to Southeastern, there are now 140,000 e-ticket journeys a week on the network.

As Southeastern continue to roll out more e-ticket routes, this number is expected to grow rapidly.

The consultation will also address managing costs in terms of financial sustainability.

If proposals for the future of ticket offices are approved when the results of the consultation are implemented, Southeastern will “ensure” staff who currently work in ticket offices will get support and training to transition to new roles where they will be able to provide a “wider range of customer support” including helping people with accessibility requirements and keeping people safe.

“Every station currently staffed will continue to be staffed” a spokesperson for Southeastern states.

There is wide variation across the 180 stations Southeastern serves of different opening times and staff available at the 142 ticket offices.

At the conclusion of Southeastern’s consultation the following is proposed:

• Travel Centres will provide a combination of travel information and ticketing solutions at 14 of the busiest stations.

• At Southeastern’s medium and larger sized stations, where it is agreed that ticket offices are no longer required, they will be closed. Overall, these stations will have fewer staff, but they aim to support customers with new training and help people face-to-face.

• At smaller stations, where the only staff currently on the station is the person in the ticket office, if agreed that the ticket office will be closed, the staff there are said to be “available to provide a wider range of customer support”.

• At 18 of these smaller stations, where vacancies have resulted in a temporarily unstaffed station, these stations will be restaffed as staff are deployed where they are most needed.

• At 27 stations which are unstaffed stations, customers will continue to have a mobile assistance team (to provide accessibility support) and much better self-service retail options such as e-ticketing.

Southeastern will be conducting this consultation in a phased approached and the first 40 stations of the first phase of consultation are displayed on the map below.

People who want to respond to the consultation are being asked to do so by September 1, 2023.