SHUT OUT

How disabled people will suffer if ticket offices axed

- ANNA MORELL

I’M at Aylesham station with my friend Sue Bott and her guide dog Berry. It’s a blustery afternoon and we want to get a train to Canterbury.

Sue is visually impaired, I'm physically impaired, and the ticket office/waiting room is locked. The Kent station used to have a full-time ticket office employee, but since Jan retired (everybody knew her by name), she has not been replaced.

Instead, a staff member is available in the mornings. Sometimes. In the afternoon, the only option is to buy a ticket from the machine. But Sue can't use it.

She can't see the touchscreen so she has to get on a train without a ticket.

Southeastern trains, owned by the Government after it took back the franchise in 2021, says if someone can't buy a ticket at the station, they can buy one from an on-board manager or conductor.

Yet in January the £20 fine for being caught without a ticket went up to £100, plus the price of your journey. Worrying.

Apparently, staff will be moved to be out and about on the platforms instead.