TRAIN operator Great Western Railway (GWR) has been accused of breaking a pledge by restricting access to ticket facilities at Taunton station which will affect passengers from the Wellington and West Somerset areas.

MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said the company had gone back on a promise to allow travellers to access the ticket office on the down side via the barriers on the now unmanned up side.

However, Mt Liddell-Grainger said, the change of heart was nothing less than he would expect from a company with what he considered an appalling record on customer service.

Thousands of Wellington and West Somerset residents use the trains every week and leave their cars in the cheaper, Somerset Council-run Kilkenny car park rather than the expensive new multi-storey car park near the front of the upgraded station.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said when the ticket office on that side of the station was closed, he was assured passengers would be allowed to use the underpass and lifts to reach the office on the other side.

Now, GWR had terminated that arrangement.

Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents West Somerset and will be the Conservative candidate for the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency taking in much of the area around Wellington, said: “That means older people, families with young children, and those with heavy baggage now have to traipse down the street and up a fairly steep ramp to get a ticket.

“There is a ticket machine on the Kilkenny side but it is unreliable and for anyone wanting more than a basic journey pretty useless.

“A family of four trying to buy tickets for a complicated cross-country journey would be stuck there for hours.

“GWR has already shown its contempt for passengers’ needs by announcing the closure of all its ticket offices next year after a totally sham ‘consultation’.

“But to simply tear up an agreement it reached with me over station access is utterly abominable.

“The remodelling of Taunton station has been a failure.

“It is less, rather than more, accessible and the staff could not care less about passengers.

“If ever there were a more glaring example of the abuse of a monopoly I have yet to encounter one.”

A GWR spokesman said the company was currently consulting on how tickets were sold at Taunton and other stations with ticket offices, which was available at www.gwr.com/haveyoursay.

He said Mr Liddell-Grainger had raised the issue in August of last year when he was told the gateline was an important part of the revenue protection process to prevent people boarding trains without paying.

Because lost revenue was covered by the taxpayer, the Department for Transport expected GWR to operate gatelines as often as possible and for as long as possible.

Staff were instructed to always first encourage use of the station’s ticket vending machine, but in the case of vulnerable or elderly customers they should also look to see what else could be done to help.

Opening the gate was an option in exceptional cases but could not be the ‘norm’..