Andy Burnham has written to the Transport Secretary today to brand as “wholly inadequate” the consultation on plans to close ticket offices across the city-region, and called for an immediate suspension to operator Northern’s process – or he will consider legal action.
In the letter to Mark Harper, the Mayor says that passengers and staff have been “taken aback by the scale of the proposed changes”, and that it feels they are being “railroaded through” without proper consultation on the impact they would have on passengers, particularly disabled people and older people.
He argues that the proposals set out by train operating companies would “further damage the confidence of passengers in our railways at precisely the time when we are all seeking to attract more people to use public transport and rebuild vital revenue.”
The Mayor is calling on Northern Trains Limited to suspend their public consultation with immediate effect until they publish an Equalities Impact Assessment (EQIA) to help inform consultation responses, arguing that current plans cannot adequately be assessed without one, and that 21 days is a “clearly insufficient” amount of time for people to judge such a far-reaching set of proposals.
He has said that if the operator is not prepared to agree to his request, he will have no option but to consider what legal action may be possible.
