The signatures are mounting up on a petition to keep open the ticket office at Appleby railway station.
It is the only manned station ticket office in Cumbria on the Settle to Carlisle line, apart from the final stop.
Since the call for signatures was started towards the end of August, more than 150 people have added their names.
It was set up by Andy Connell, a town, district and county councillor, in light of concerns about ticket offices nationwide being shut down – including Penrith.
There have been whispers for some time that Appleby’s could be one of the ticket offices to go, which he said would represent a “serious loss”.
But train service operator Northern insisted this week: “There are no plans to close Appleby or any other ticket office on our network.”
Cllr Connell, a regular rail user, said a surprising number of people using the railway network still relied on face-to-face advice about tickets, times and travel options. Although other travellers may be competent in digital ticketing, it was important that a significant station such as Appleby retained a manned service.
He said: “It’s pretty well used and quite a lot of local people use it, some on a regular basis and others occasionally to go on holiday or to Carlisle, Skipton or Leeds. It also brings in a lot of visitors.”
Rail union the RMT warned in July that almost 1,000 ticket offices are set to close in England with the loss of thousands of jobs.
There have also been national newspaper reports about plans to “phase out paper tickets, close or repurpose” ticket offices to force passengers to buy tickets online. Age UK says that 25 per cent of people aged 65 and over in the UK do not use the internet and risk losing access to key services.
Cllr Connell said the ticket office at Appleby, open six days a week, was operated by Northern with staffing support from the Settle to Carlisle Development Company and it needed to be retained.
Elderly people, people with disabilities and foreign visitors who may not have English as their first language would be disadvantaged if it was lost.
