Changing how we support customers at our stations

Across many areas of life, the way people access services and buy products has changed. Northern customers are no different and we need to modernise to respond to their changing needs.

As customer habits have changed, people have moved to other, more convenient ways of buying tickets. Many people prefer to buy online or use apps, a trend that is expected to continue.

• Nationally just 12% of ticket sales are made through a ticket office.
• Only 1 in 6 journeys on Northern services are bought through a ticket office, compared with almost half of all journeys in 2018.

As the railways adapts to evolving customer behaviour and to ensure that it can thrive in the long-term, the industry needs to modernise how rail tickets are sold.

For more information about ticket sales for your station download our retailing summary. Once the document is open in a pdf reader clicking on the bookmark or document outline icon on the left of the screen will allow you to go direct to any individual station page.

We connect tens of thousands of people with work, leisure, education and more. And we have a long-term vision for the future, with customers and communities at the very heart of what we do. 

• We manage 467 stations – 18% of stations in the UK.
• We operate ticket offices at 149 stations.
• 318 of our stations already operate without ticket offices.

We know that stations will play an important part of our vision, which is why we will make sure that they better serve all our customers as well as the local communities that live around them.

We need to provide value for customers and communities we serve and deliver the ambition for a sustainable and modern railway. This comes with a real opportunity to transform our stations. Changes to ticket offices will be part of this, but our vision is much bigger.

We are committed to making sure our train services are accessible to everyone, to enable all our customers to travel with confidence.

As part of our proposals:

• Station opening times will not change and our train services are unaffected. 
• All our train services will continue to support accessible travel. 

We operate 318 stations without ticket offices. Our proposals will mean that ticket offices at a further 131 stations will close. We will also reduce the number of hours that Northern colleagues are present at these stations.

We plan to close our ticket offices in phases over an 18-month period, subject to the outcome of this consultation. 

We will keep ticket offices at the 18 stations listed below. Ticket offices at these stations will have amended ticket office opening times and the number of hours that Northern colleagues are present at these locations will reduce. These ticket offices have been chosen based on location and volume of ticket sales.

• Barrow-in-Furness
• Blackburn
• Blackpool North
• Bolton
• Bradford Interchange
• Glossop
• Harrogate
• Hartlepool
• Leeds
• Liverpool Lime Street
• Manchester Oxford Road
• Manchester Victoria
• Rochdale
• Salford Crescent
• Skipton
• St Helen’s Central
• Warrington Central
• Wigan Wallgate

Our colleagues will continue to provide a great service for our customers.

As part of our proposed changes to ticket offices, we will be removing all existing ticket office roles. Instead we will bring our ticket office colleagues into new Journey Maker roles to assist customers around the station.

Journey Makers will be based at stations, although no longer within ticket offices. They’ll be available in other areas of the station to help customers face to face with a wide range of needs. This includes supporting people who need extra help travelling through stations and onto our trains.

All 149 stations where we have ticket offices currently will continue to have a colleague presence. We will reduce the number of hours that Northern colleagues are present at these stations.

Journey Makers will support customers by:

• Giving customers information
• Helping customers to buy tickets online and via machines
• Keep stations clean and tidy
• Make announcements at stations
• Provide extra assistance to those who needs it
• Assist during service disruption
• Help resolve customer issues
• Sell tickets at ticket offices

We will provide a range of options for customers to buy tickets before they board a train. These will be:

Where available, Journey Makers will support customers to buy tickets at ticket machines or through the customers’ own mobile device.
 
Customers who can only pay with cash and do not have access to a ticket office should get a Promise to Pay notice from a ticket machine before getting onto a train. A Promise to Pay notice allows them to board a train as long as they exchange the notice for a ticket (and pay in cash) at the first opportunity, either on board (from the conductor), or from a ticket office.

For more detail on which tickets can be bought at ticket vending machines, by phone and online download our ticket purchase options summary. The Rail Delivery Group is leading work to develop solutions for national products currently only available at ticket offices.

We are carrying out an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) across the stations where we are proposing to make changes. As part of this work we will speak to stakeholder groups that represent our customers.

An Equality Impact Assessment is done to look into the potential impact of a change on people with protected characteristics (such as age, race or disability).

Our final assessment will be informed by this public consultation. So please share with Transport Focus any impacts you may be aware of.

Download our draft impact assessment

Station Mitigations Standard - Accrington (ACR) to Bolton (BON)

Station Mitigations Standard - Bradford Forster Square (BQD) to Chassen Road (CSR)

Station Mitigations Standard - Cheadle Hulme (CHU) to Edge Hill Liverpool (EDG)

Station Mitigations Standard - Farnworth (FNW) to Hag Fold (HGF)

Station Mitigations Standard - Hale (HAL) to Horsforth (HRS)

Station Mitigations Standard - Hough Green (HGN) to Manchester Victoria (MCV)

Station Mitigations Standard - Marple (MPL) to Northwich (NWI)

Station Mitigations Standard - Parbold (PBL) to Sandbach (SDB)

Station Mitigations Standard - Settle (SET) to Walkden (WKD)

Station Mitigations Standard - Warrington Central (WAC) to Worksop (WRK)

These documents are draft. The final Equality Analysis document will be informed by the public consultation response and will be published following the outcome of the public consultation. The documents above were updated on 2 August.

We are carrying out an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) across the stations where we are proposing to make changes. As part of this work we will speak to stakeholder groups that represent our customers.

An Equality Impact Assessment is done to look into the potential impact of a change on people with protected characteristics (such as age, race or disability).

Our final assessment will be informed by this public consultation. So please share with Transport Focus any impacts you may be aware of.

Download our draft impact assessment

Station Mitigations Large Print - Accrington (ACR) to Bolton (BON)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Bradford Forster Square (BQD) to Chassen Road (CSR)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Cheadle Hulme (CHU) to Edge Hill Liverpool (EDG)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Farnworth (FNW) to Hag Fold (HGF)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Hale (HAL) to Horsforth (HRS)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Hough Green (HGN) to Manchester Victoria (MCV)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Marple (MPL) to Northwich (NWI)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Parbold (PBL) to Sandbach (SDB)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Settle (SET) to Walkden (WKD)

Station Mitigations Large Print - Warrington Central (WAC) to Worksop (WRK)

These documents are draft. The final Equality Analysis document will be informed by the public consultation response and will be published following the outcome of the public consultation

Contact us for more information. 

Assisted travel

As part of our proposals Assisted Travel will remain. You will still be able to contact Northern to arrange the assistance you need to make your journey, and:

• All of our trains have a conductor who can support customers with getting onto and off our trains. 
• We recommend that you continue to book assistance at least two hours before travel if it is needed. 

During advertised staffing hours of stations our teams will be available to assist you like today.

Working with accessibility groups

We work closely with accessibility groups, including our Northern Accessibility User Group (NAUG). They are vital in helping us understand the barriers faced by those with disabilities. And they play a key role in helping us to design solutions that give people the confidence to travel on our network.

We will continue to work with NAUG and other accessibility stakeholders throughout this change. We recognise the important input they will have.

We are working on the detail of how the changes we are making will further support accessible travel in the future.

We have invested and continue to invest in our stations to ensure they are a safe and welcoming place for our customers, including:

• We have conductors on every train who get off trains at every station.
• 130 of the 131 locations at which we propose to close ticket offices have CCTV and we plan to put it in at the remaining one.
• Travel Safe officers are employed across our network to provide reassurance to customers on trains and at our stations.
• We have customer help points at over half of our stations, which can be used in emergencies as well as providing information.
• LED lighting across our stations provides reassurance and deters crime.
• We will continue to work closely with the British Transport Police, providing public reassurance and security.

Stations with ticket offices.

Download the below ticket office hours table as a PDF here.

There will be a Journey Maker presence at all stations – see Proposed staffing hours of Journey Makers for staffing hours.

The following proposed staffing hours reflect:

• Ticket office sales volumes
• Station footfall

Download the below Journey Makers hours table as a PDF here.