Replacement kiosk at train station 'deeply unsuitable'

TRAIN passengers have complained about long queues after the ticket office at the North East's busiest railway station was closed and replaced by a kiosk.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local Democracy Reporter

LNER has recently moved the ticket office at Newcastle Central Station to a new kiosk in front of the departure boards on the station concourse.

But the North East Public Transport Users Group (NEPTUG) has branded the arrangement “deeply unsuitable”. The passenger group said that the kiosk, which serves as both a ticket window and an information point, was experiencing long queues of more than half an hour which had led some people to miss their trains.

They also aired concerns about difficulty hearing staff behind the glass kiosk window above the hubbub of the station and platform announcements, saying there was a “serious equality concern” for those with hearing impairments and people whose first language is not English.