MORE than three-quarters of adults with sight problems fear closing train ticket offices will leave them isolated.
A poll of 200 people with a visual impairment found 85 per cent currently have a local train station with a staffed ticket office.
SWNSMore than three-quarters of adults with sight problems fear closing train ticket offices will leave them isolated, a survey shows[/caption]
But 78 per cent claim closing ticket offices would make accessing a train more difficult and unable to use the service confidently.
Charity Guide Dogs is calling on the government to rethink proposals to the offices.
Eleanor Briggs, head of policy and campaigns at the charity, said: “We need to make sure no-one is left behind.
“The plans to scrap ticket offices at stations across England will only add to the anxiety millions of visually impaired people already feel about using public transport.
“For many people with sight loss, trains are essential to get to work, appointments or see family.”
Around 2million Brits live with sight loss, with 340,000 of those registered as blind or partially sighted.
The Sun revealed rail firms’ plans to close nearly all the remaining 1,007 remaining offices across England over the next three years — barring the busiest stations — earlier this month.
The RMT union slammed the decision, calling it “a savage attack on railway workers, their families and the travelling public”.
And the Guide Dogs survey, via One Poll, showed the vast majority of people with vision impairments — 82 per cent — think the government should rethink the plans, for fear of leaving visually impaired people behind.
Some 85 per cent also believe the decision is based on money, rather than improving services.
Visually impaired passengers are deemed the group most likely to be negatively impacted by the proposals, followed by users with other disabilities.
And 45 per cent of those polled worry how those without access — or who are unable to use — technology effectively will also struggle.
The public consultation is open for just 21 days, whereby people can feed in their views as to whether train ticket station closures should go ahead.
The consultation is due to end on 26 July.
Sandra Morris, 61, from Devon, who is visually impaired and on the waiting list for a guide dog, said: “I have recently used the train using the ticket office to buy my ticket for a five hour journey.
“Without the ticket office I will not be able to buy my ticket without someone there to help me. I am severely visually impaired so cannot use the machines.
“Another piece of my independence being taken away.”