Avanti West Coast to close its ticket office at Glasgow Central Station

Train operators are taking different approaches to the closure of ticket offices across the UK.

Avanti West Coast, which runs services on the West Coast Main Line, said it proposes to close “all ticket office windows at stations”.

That includes those at major stations such as Glasgow Central, London Euston and Birmingham New Street.

It said the plan “reflects significantly reduced usage of ticket offices over the past decade as customers move to alternative, more convenient ways of buying tickets”.

London North Eastern Railway, which operates services on the East Coast Main Line, said it plans to close facilities at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Darlington, Durham, Grantham, Newark Northgate, Retford and Wakefield Westgate.

Ticket offices will be retained at Newcastle, York, Doncaster, Peterborough and London King’s Cross.

The operator’s managing director David Horne said: “Our customers’ habits have changed, and we must plan for the needs of our future customers.

“We want everyone to enjoy an even better experience when travelling with LNER.”

South Western Railway said it will bring staff “out of the ticket offices and into the stations”, including at London Waterloo, the UK’s busiest station.

Waterloo will be among 24 “category one” stations of the operator’s network.

South Western Railway said there will be “multiple” members of staff “available to help customers” at those locations.

Great Western Railway is proposing to close ticket offices at a number of stations including London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads, Oxford and Reading.

Operator Northern said it plans to close ticket offices at 131 stations and make changes to ticket office hours at 18 stations.

Southeastern said it will replace ticket offices with “travel centres” at 14 of its busiest stations, such as London Bridge.

These will provide “a combination of travel information and ticketing solutions”.