Ticket office at Berkhamsted station to have opening hours cut

The ticket office at Berkhamsted station could have its opening times cut by almost five hours a week.

London Midland is proposing that the office should open later on weekday mornings and close earlier on weekend evenings - leaving travellers more reliant on self-service machines to buy tickets.

Under the plans, the office would be staffed from 6am to 8pm between Monday and Friday and from 7am to 7pm on a Saturday. Sunday opening hours would be from 8am to 5pm.

At the moment, the ticket office is open from 5.15am to 8pm during the week and from 6.30am to 8pm on a Saturday. On a Sunday it is open from 8.15am to 5.30pm, with a 40 minute closure at lunchtime.

The changes form part of a review of opening hours at 86 stations managed by the company and could be introduced as early as June this year.

In a statement, London Midland said: 'We have looked in detail at how customers have been using all of our ticket office facilities over the past few years. The results have shown a steady decline in tickets being bought from ticket offices, resulting in long periods of no ticket sales activity at some locations.

'The proposed changes that we are suggesting are linked to this identified change in passenger behaviour at each affected station.'