Plans for widespread closures of ticket offices at rail stations in England might be delayed because of the ability of machines currently in operation.
Anthony Smith, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus told the Commons Transport Select Committee: “There are certain types of ticket you can only get at the moment from a ticket office."
Ticket machines are OK for simple ticket purchases, he said, but are not suitable for complicated transactions.
Operators want to close ticket offices at most English stations, while Avanti West Coast wants to shut its office at Glasgow Central.
If Transport Focus lodges an objection to the plans, train operators can refer the proposals to Transport Secretary Mark Harper for a final decision.
Operators claim more staff will be deployed on platforms if the ticket offices shut, but unions have derided this.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, described the suggestion as “nonsense”.
“A quarter of the jobs are going to be cut on stations, 2,300," he told the committee.
“The companies have notified us of that already under the statutory letter.
“So they’re not taking them out of the ticket office to work on the platforms, they’re taking them out of the ticket office to make cuts, to cut the jobs out of the system.”