Rail travel should be encouraged by making it easy to buy tickets - Yorkshire Post Letters

I fully agree with your comment piece and with readers who criticise planned closure of railway ticket offices (The Yorkshire Post, Letters, July 11).

Sadly, I fear proposals to close nearly all ticket offices were designed by managers who may understand accounting but lack understanding of business, a combination now all too common in Britain.

Most of my longer distance journeys are made by train, still the best way to travel, but if ticket office closures go through this will change. Although I use online services regularly I’ve found that train operator websites rarely give answers to the specific questions I have. The excellent ticket office staff at York have always been able to help so I now use that office rather than the technology. They have also suggested cheaper or more appropriate tickets, something I would not pick up from websites.

Using ticket machines is a much touted alternative. I wonder if those who design such machines ever use them? That at Poppleton has been described as the most hated machine in York. When it works, it shows a marked reluctance to acknowledge senior railcards among other problems.

Rail travel should be encouraged by keeping it easy to buy tickets. Keeping staff in accessible ticket offices and not wandering around stations as Northern Trains appear to suggest is the best way to attract rail users.