In the latest sign that an uncaring and incompetent Conservative Government is presiding over the managed decline of Britain, as I touched on in my last Reynolds Round-up, we have recently had the news that hundreds of train station ticket offices across the country are to close before we know it. We now know that the hurried update from the rail companies includes moves from Northern Rail to close staffed ticket offices at an enormous forty-five stations across Greater Manchester, including Broadbottom, Hattersley, Mossley and Newton-for-Hyde in our constituency. Also marked for closure are neighbouring Ashton-Under-Lyne, and most staggering of all, Manchester Piccadilly – possibly the busiest ticket office I have ever known.

Round-up readers might remember that it was only this February that we officially opened the new Hattersley ticket office, the result of a hard fought £750,000 investment. To shut this new facility a mere matter of months after it opened represents extraordinary mismanagement and is deeply disrespectful to Hattersley residents. You really couldn’t make it up.

Over 150 million journeys nationwide will be hit by the rushed and worrying decision to take staff out of ticket offices, yet maddeningly, passengers in Tameside have been given just 21 days to have their say. We are sadly used to consultations proving to be little more than lip service, but in this case, there appears to be barely any pretence that the Transport Focus online survey amounts to meaningful community engagement. The closures have been presented as a done deal. This is no way to treat local rail users, who have frankly already suffered enough from timetable changes, endless cancellations and delays, and frequent overcrowding.

Basic questions on the impact on disabled passengers, older and other vulnerable passengers remain conspicuously unanswered, as do queries about the roll-out of technology in stations and the safety of passengers as staffing levels drop. We are told staff will be deployed elsewhere, but doing what, to what gain, remains unclear. As my colleague Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said, “They are trying to dress up staff reductions and cost cutting as ‘improvements to customer service'”. We will not be fooled.

Andy, alongside other Labour mayors, has this week launched a legal challenge against the rail operators, rightly arguing the last bit of trust the British public have in our rail network might be eroded if the rushed ticket office closures go ahead. The rail operators might be the front face of this hugely unpopular move, but the Tory Government is standing right by them, handing over the axe. It is another bitter disappointment, and Tameside train travellers deserve better.