Blind East Yorkshire Councillor hits out against train ticket office closures

Tracy Dearing is a blind Hull councillor who says she relies on ticket offices to travel by train, as do many disabled people.

Plans to close up to 1,000 ticket offices in stations across the country - including Hull Paragon Station - were announced last month. The public consultation on the proposed closures has now been extended to 1st September.

Tracy Dearing said: "It's quite upsetting to think that the only way I could use the rail in Hull would be to go with a family member or my husband. That is upsetting - it's not independence.

"As a blind professional woman I just feel really saddened that I'm reduced to needing to rely on friends, family and a supporter worker to travel."

The Rail Delivery Group says the plans would allow staff to be freed up from ticket offices to go onto platforms and wherever customers need them.

They say only 12% of tickets are now bought from ticket offices, compared to 82% in the mid-90s, with more people buying tickets online. However, the plans have come under fire for their potential impact on those with accessibility issues.

Tracy Dearing said: "[They think} 'They're not going to kick up too much of a fuss so it doesn't matter' - that's how I feel, we don't matter, and we're a group of people they can just forget.

"There's certain points in the station I know and trust and that ticket office is one of them. It's a point of contact that if everything else goes wrong that is where you can go to."

She reported an increase in antisocial behaviour at Hull Paragon Station, meaning she'd worry about the prospect of losing the support of ticket office staff.

She said: "It makes me feel quite vulnerable, it makes me feel quite anxious that if something where to go wrong, I wouldn't know where to go."

She welcomed the decision to extend the public consultation, and said she hoped the plans could be stopped.