Major ScotRail shake-up as ticket office opening hours change across the country

Check how this affects your local station.

Queen St Station
Author: Donald ErskinePublished 31st Oct 2024
Last updated 31st Oct 2024

Train stations across Glasgow and the west will see their ticket offices close earlier in the afternoons and evenings.

ScotRail says it won't be closing station ticket offices, however, more than 50 will have their opening hours cut.

The change has come as a result of a consultation which revealed a 50 precent fall in ticket office transactions over the last 10 years - but there will be no redundancies and more visible customer support at stations.

The change to ticket office opening hours does not affect trains stopping at the station as set out in ScotRail’s timetable and no ticket offices will close.

"We have listened to our customers."

Phil Campbell, ScotRail Customer Operations Director, said: “The independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus carried out an extensive consultation on these proposals, which received feedback from thousands of people across Scotland.

"We have listened to our customers and updated our proposals based on that feedback.

“These changes will provide a service that is better suited for today and the ticket-buying habits of our customers, as well as create an environment that improves safety and customer support.”

Campbell ensured that the train travellers would reap the benefits of the changes and that increased staff visibility would improve every aspect of the stations.

Campbell said: "Moving these staff from the ticket offices and into other duties on the frontline will improve visibility and safety.

"The helpdesks will be manned and allow staff to speak directly with customers to answer any queries and assist with their journeys."

The changes will come into effect soon, and have been backed up by not only usage data, but feedback from ScotRail travellers.

In 2021, the train operator published an assessment – the first of its kind since 1991 - which showed a dramatic increase in the number of tickets bought on the ScotRail website, app, or at ticket machines, with a significant decrease in customers buying at ticket offices. In the past 10 years alone, there has been a 50 per cent drop in ticket office sales.

The stats show ticket buying trend changes

The following chart shows the dramatic change in how customers buy their tickets over the past 10 years:

The data shows that 16 per cent of sales are via ticket offices, with 90 per cent of those sales are from just 20 stations.

A further 20 per cent of sales are via ticket vending machines (TVMs) at stations.

And finally, a whopping 43 per cent of tickets are online, through the website or the app.

Based on this data, ScotRail has implemented changes that will increase 12 ticket office opening hours, but 54 ticket offices will reduce opening hours.

There will be no change to the opening hours at the remaining 77 staffed stations.

The detail of the changes can be found on the ScotRail website.

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