A UNION claims the ticket office at York railway station will be shut down and replaced with an entirely self-service area.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) said it has seen documents which suggest the ticket office could be transformed into a location where staff will only be on hand to help answer questions and not to provide tickets.

Virgin Trains, which runs York Station, has not confirmed or denied the plans, but Sean McGowan, the RMT’s regional organiser for the North, claims staff have already been consulted on the changes.

York Press:

He said: “They have given us a revised proposal for change document.

“Their plan is to remove a physical barrier between employers and customers and create Customer Zones, which will involve fast ticket machines, CCTV, panic alarms, sky alarms and so on.

“They see York Station as the first to change and are committed to implementing changes.

“They will remove physical barriers and have people floor walking, and that’s definitely part of their proposals.”

Mr McGowan said the RMT’s strike action on October 3 last year took place because of the planned changes to “jobs and conditions”.

He added: “It’s part of proposals to merge travel centres.

“The very reason they are doing this is because they came to us in March last year and said ‘we are doing a bit of research and the passengers are telling us we want a new travel experience and this is what it is’. It looks more like Euro Disney than York Station. There’s lots of Branson branding and red flying off everywhere.

“We took action over this on October 3 last year and cancelled action on April 28 and April 29.”

The changes are likely to prove controversial with customers who face the possibility of not being able to buy tickets over the counter and will instead have to potentially deal with more technology.

A spokesman for Virgin Trains, which runs York station, told The Press: “We’re investing £140 million in our east coast route to ensure that we can give customers the service we know they want.

“Our customer satisfaction scores are rising and we’re always looking for ways to improve things further, but any proposed changes will be communicated first and foremost to our people for a full consultation.”