​The train operating companies, both individually such as EMR, and collectively through the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), launched a consultation on a proposal to close most station ticket offices throughout the country.  They state that only 12% of ticket sales are now made at ticket offices; EMR say that only 5% of their tickets are sold this way.  The majority of tickets are now sold online or via mobile phone apps, or at self-service ticket machines.  The instigator of this proposal is the Government, which wants to reduce costs and ‘modernise customer service’.  The stated aim is not to de-staff the stations; rather, it is to bring ticket office staff out from behind the glass and into more wide-ranging ‘customer help’ roles around the station.  There is a parallel here with the changes recently seen in the banks and supermarkets.  More on the RDG’s position can be found here: https://media.raildeliverygroup.com/news/proposals-to-update-the-railway-for-how-passengers-use-it-today
However, the proposals are proving controversial. 
We in Harborough Rail Users accept modernisation on the railways just as much as anywhere else.  For Market Harborough, the proposal is to close the ticket office and to reduce staffing hours at the beginning and end of the operating day.  Staff will still be available to assist passengers, but we also wonder about the implications for them if the ticket office is closed.  Will they be expected to be on their feet all day in the booking hall as well as their duties on the platforms?  In any case, our station team are already multi-skilled, undertaking various customer-facing duties around the station.
We therefore have serious concerns about the implications of what is proposed, both for station users and the staff.  Among these are:

• Continued availability of all services currently provided by the ticket office, such as Advance tickets, Season tickets and Photocards, Railcards, Ranger and Rover tickets, and ticket refunds
• Reduced staffing hours at the station, which are part of the plan
• Accessibility and equality: for example, many elderly and disabled people are uncomfortable with or unable to use online ticket purchase, mobile phone apps, etc, and may struggle with self-service ticket machines
• Assistance with the car park barriers – which are monitored from the ticket office.

• We also do not want to see any potential reduction in the availability of other station facilities, such as the waiting rooms, toilets, and the footbridge lifts. 

We are seeking assurances where possible regarding the intended arrangements.

Have your say.  Please respond to the consultation,
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FRIDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER:

• By using the online form at https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/ticket-office-consultation/
• Or emailing your comments to [email protected]
• Or you can write to Freepost: RTEH-XAGE-BYKZ, Transport Focus, PO Box 5594, Southend on Sea, SS1 9PZ.

REMINDER: THE CONSULTATION CLOSES ON FRIDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER 2023
You can also write to your MP. 
Contact email addresses for our local MPs are:

• Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough: [email protected]
• Philip Hollbone, MP for Kettering: [email protected]
• Chris Heaton-Harris, MP for Daventry: [email protected]
• Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton: [email protected]

​We are not opposed to modernisation, but it must be done in a way that does not disadvantage anyone.  The railway is a public service that must be accessible and available to all.   

Revisions have been made to the station forecourt area.  The area previously occupied by a temporary toilet block has been marked out with six disabled parking bays, and the taxis have been moved to a small area on the opposite side, next to the railway embankment; this area remains constrained by the new temporary toilets.   
Harborough Rail Users have asked about plans for the forecourt once the temporary toilets have been replaced by a new permanent facility at platform level.  One serious limitation at the station is the almost complete absence of short-stay parking; that at the entrance to the main car park only has four bays and is clearly marked 'Drop off only - no waiting'.  That makes it unavailable for anyone arriving by car to meet someone off a train.  The forecourt currently only has two general-use parking bays (complete with the ludicrous Pay & Display machine!).  Given the sheer scale of the main car park, it is extraordinary that a station serving a large car-dependent rural catchment area has such inadequate short-stay parking!  We shall continue to pursue this with EMR.
We would also like to see a barrier installed on the edge of the pavement immediately outside the main building entrance doors.   This would channel people leaving the station onto the pavements to left and right, and thereby, for example, stop children running out into the vehicle area.

On 29th January, Harborough Rail Users we invited consulting engineers JNP Group to take part in a public consultation on proposals to demolish the now-closed 1970s building at the south end of Platform 1 and construct a new building with toilets and a waiting room further along the platform.  The short connecting ramp between the original Victorian ramp up from the booking office and the platform is to be reconstructed with a shallower angle of slope.  A small canopy is proposed for the top of the ramp in place of the 1970s building. 
The timescale for the work is between July 2021 and March 2022 and it is long overdue.  HRU responded on 12th February, welcoming the project overall.  We feel the optimum location for the new building is immediately south of the footbridge.  We set out our views on the amenity and accessibility implications, especially as the new platforms are surprisingly narrow given the availability of land.  We asked whether the disabled-accessible toilet will be of the ‘changing places’ kind, and commented on the furnishing and finish of the waiting room; plus the weather-protection at the top of the ramp once the 1970s building has gone.  We also called for the new structures to have some ‘warmth’ in their design, including sympathetic architectural treatment of the area around the top of the Victorian ramp.
We now await further information about the project.  Once built, the temporary toilet cabin in the station forecourt can be removed, which allow the forecourt to be tidied up and the layout reviewed in terms of pedestrian and vehicle safety.

At the 2018 AGM on 29th November, Harborough Rail Users reviewed the past year’s activities and set the scene for campaign topics for the next year. 
Important decisions will be made over the next few months that will have a major effect on our station and train services for many years to come.

​The main issues for Harborough Rail Users are:

1. Market Harborough station, including the Access for All improvements and track realignment.  The new platforms are beginning to take shape and some of the new track has been laid.  It will be a major improvement on the present station, but we will continue to press for better access arrangements from the booking hall to the new platforms, better shelter, provision of facilities such as toilets for the southbound platform, and the promised cycle hub. 
2. The next East Midlands franchise.  We have submitted our detailed response to the Department for Transport consultation.  We have also met all three companies who are bidding and have given them details of what we hope to see in the next franchise, which is due to start in August 2019.   The government’s specification retains our essential two trains per hour service in each direction throughout the day. We need to retain a good mix of fast and stopping trains, combining regular fast services to London with stopping trains giving good connectivity to intermediate stations such as Kettering, Bedford and Luton Airport Parkway, plus good connections for Corby.  We have called for some timetable improvements such as earlier trains northbound in the morning, including Sundays, and later last trains southbound in the evenings.  The franchise specification requires the reinstatement of peak-time trains between Wellingborough and Bedford ‘as soon as reasonably practical’.
3. Electrification.  Though the scheme for the whole line north of Kettering has been cancelled, we await the decision on whether overhead wires or an underground conduit will be used to connect the Corby line electrification to the planned power substation at Braybrooke.  If overhead lines are to be installed, a further decision is awaited on whether that would then be extended for ‘the last mile’ into Market Harborough.  On a related note, decisions are awaited on rolling stock.  The franchise specification requires a new fleet of bi-mode trains for the main line, to be fully in service by the end of 2023.  We shall be taking a keen interest in the specifications for any new bi-mode or other trains that may be ordered.  There also remains the question of replacing or modifying the present HSTs to make them compliant with accessibility and other regulations that come into force in 2020, three years before full introduction of any new stock.

Last September, the DfT announced the next round of Access for All funding for railway stations.  Funds from a national allocation of £300m must be bid for by 'local delivery groups', which for Market Harborough means East Midlands Trains and Network Rail.  They are including additional accessibility enhancements for our station in their overall bid for the EMT network. 
HRU and Harborough MP Neil O'Brien have both submitted letters in support of this bid, which seeks funding towards an additional lift between the booking office and the new northbound platform, plus an accessible toilet on the new southbound platform.  The DfT is due to announce its decision in April 2019.