At the recent Isle of Wight Bus and Rail Users’ Group meeting, Mark Dunn, the General Manager of Island Line, urged the public to submit their thoughts on the proposed closure of ticket office windows in the public consultation.
The plans to close ticket office windows, and move staff out into the public areas instead to assist with ticket sales via station machines and online only, was announced in early July with initially just three weeks to submit responses.
However, Mark explain that the consultation has now been extended until 1st September.
Make sure your concerns are captured
Despite the consultation coming to a close in just a couple of weeks, Mark said he believed that any proposals would not be implemented until at least Spring 2025.
He said,
“Please read the proposal in detail (here) and think about how it impacts you as an individual or you as a party of people that you represent. And then use the public consultation process through Transport Focus, to actually put your concerns or put questions to Department for Transport (DfT), because if you don’t use that process, your concerns won’t get captured.
“There is still time to actually go back and submit your concerns.”
Specifics unique to the Island
Mark went on to add that once the public consultation finishes, they will continue with the union consultation.
“That won’t be completed until early next year. There’ll be lots of things that we’re going to have to resolve or answer, because the proposal is quite broad in brushstroke. There’ll be specifics to Ryde Esplanade that aren’t relevant to the Mainland. And there will be considerations that we will want made, such as the fact that we do run, to a certain degree, a seasonal railway, and we need to make sure that it is properly considered.
“On the Mainland, many of the railways are focused on Monday to Friday service.
He added that they wanted to make sure they can support all of their customers.
The process
By next Easter, it’s estimated that the outcomes from the public consultation and union negotiations will feed into a proposal submitted by South Western Railways to the DfT.
Mark explained,
“At that point, the DfT will have to make a decision as to how far they go with the proposal and they will then come back to the train operators and say to them, this is what we want you to use to implement.”
He finished by saying,
“It’s quite a long process, but don’t be complacent. If you’ve got concerns, if you’ve got things that you want to be captured, please engage with the public consultation process as soon as you possibly can.”
Have your say
To respond to the consultation (deadline Friday 1st September 2023) email: [email protected].
Alternatively you can write to Freepost: RTEH-XAGE-BYKZ, Transport Focus, PO Box 5594, Southend on Sea SS1 9PZ.
For more information about how to have your say visit the Transport Focus Website.
Image: _4cryingoutloud under CC BY 2.0
