Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of proposed closures of station ticket offices in (a) Great Yarmouth and (b) other coastal towns on the tourism sector in those areas.

Train operators are responsible for deciding how to ensure sufficient access to ticketing services at their stations, including at those in coastal towns or other popular tourist areas. Train operators have chosen to do this in different ways, or example, some operators have proposed to retain ticket offices at the largest stations, whereas others have proposed to provide new mobile equipment to station staff so that they can sell tickets as required.

Together with industry, we want to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from ticket offices to provide more help and advice in customer focused roles. No currently staffed station will be unstaffed as a result of industry changes, and train operators will ensure staff are well located to meet passenger needs in future.