The Meteor

Manchesters Independent Media

A partial map of the Northern trains network faded in over a view out of a train on the approach to Manchester Piccadilly railway station. There is a reflection of the carriage lighting on the window pane, and the view includes train tracks, overhead wiring gantries, and the Manchester skyline. It is an overcast day.

Our interactive map shows which stations in Greater Manchester will keep their ticket offices, and which ones will close. Zoom in on your location to see how you will be affected.

Hover your cursor over a station on the map below to see more information about its ticket office and station accessibility.

Each station is categorised for accessibility according to the definitions in the Office of Rail and Road Accessible Travel Policy Guidance for Train and Station Operators (July 2019):

  • Category A: This station has step-free access to all platforms
  • Category B: This station has a degree of step-free access to the platform, which may be in both directions or in one direction only
  • Category C: This station does not have step-free access to any platform

Rail operators say that they are moving station staff to concourse areas to operate in a more ‘customer service‘ focused role, but we do not yet know which stations will retain staff or how long these roles are expected to last. This may be the beginning of a longer route to eliminating staff from railway stations altogether.

Many of Greater Manchester’s stations are already unstaffed, and do not comply with the highest level of accessibilty, Category A, meaning that rail travel is difficult or impossible for elderly and disabled travellers. Removing ticket offices and station staff from more stations risks exacerbating this problem and cutting more people off from the public transport network.

A public consultation is being run by all of the rail companies until Wednesday 26 July (although the Northern website says 28 July). You can read more about the changes that Northern will be making here, and you can respond online to the proposals at Transport Focus.

All the stations in Greater Manchester that are closing their ticket offices:

The ones that are staying open:

Those that are already unstaffed:

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Featured image: Katy Preen

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  • Kacy Preen

    Kacy is co-editor and organiser at The Meteor, and has lived in Manchester for 20+ years. They are interested in local politics and property development. Kacy is a member of the Trans Journalists Association.

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