Nexus have announced that their six remaining Travelshops at bus and Metro stations will not be reopening, having initially closed at the start of the pandemic overnight on 23rd March. It is said that they are no longer needed as all the services they provided are available online, at ticket machines or through the assistance of staff at bus and Metro stations.
We are now in an eight week consultation into their closure with Nexus asking anyone who believes they may be adversely affected to get in touch, so they can be assisted to access alternative services.
Huw Lewis, Customer Services Director at Nexus, said: “Our customers can now do almost everything they used to do across a counter faster and more conveniently online – people simply don’t need our shops any more. Our shops team have proved to be unsung heroes of the pandemic – switching overnight to frontline customer service roles offering reassuring presence to customers, and helping encourage social distancing and the use of face coverings. We will find alternative roles for all of them, working with customers on stations or in other parts of Nexus. Our Travelshops have been used less and less in the last decade as customer switched to Pop smart tickets and online purchase. These and other products, including Gold Card and Network One season tickets, can now be bought at ticket machines throughout the day and week, not just when shops were open. We speeded up our move online as a result of lockdown, and we have completed thousands of applications for older person’s concessionary travelcards and Under-16 identity cards online – these were things you could only apply for over a counter or by post before March. We have begun a public consultation so that anyone who is concerned they may be affected can get in touch for us to discuss alternatives, although only a handful of people have done this since the shops were closed suddenly at the start of lockdown.”
The consultation can be viewed at http://www.nexus.org.uk/consultation.