Plans to close the Avanti West Coast ticket office in Glasgow Central Station have been revealed.

A proposal released today (July 5) on "the future of ticket retailing" and the public have just 21 days to take part in a consultation on the plans.

The industry-wide proposals represent the biggest update to ticket retailing since 1995.

"Customer ambassadors" will take the place of traditional ticket office vendors to "provide advice and support on buying tickets and accessibility needs".

The firm claims that only 12% of tickets are sold at ticket offices today, compared with 82% of sales in the mid 1990s.

Members of the public are being asked to weigh in on the suggested plans for ticket retailing at Avanti's 16 managed stations, including Glasgow Central.

The consultation is being managed by Transport Focus and London TravelWatch.

The proposed changes will be phased in over three years.

To support the transition, ticket offices at the affected Network Rail stations will remain open short-term for customers who have complicated ticket queries which cannot currently be dealt with online or at a TVM.

Alongside the public consultation on ticket offices, a range of options for employees affected will be discussed.

These will include moving employees to the new Customer Ambassador role, re-training and re-skilling.

Train companies will continue to engage constructively with unions at a local level to manage the outcome of the consultations and any subsequent transition.

Avanti West Coast will also be consulting with its industry-leading Facebook accessibility group about the proposals and all its accessibility panels.

Andy Mellors, managing director of Avanti West Coast, said: “It is important for the rail industry to change the way it retails tickets as customer behaviour has evolved over the last three decades.

“Our proposals would mean more staff on hand to give face-to-face help with a much wider range of needs, from journey planning, to finding the right ticket and helping those with accessibility needs.

“Our commitment is that we will always treat our people fairly, with support and extra training to move into new and varied roles with a number of responsibilities without compromising on the safety of them or our customers.

“We also understand that our customers have differing needs which is why we will be consulting with accessibility groups on this consultation.”

For more information about how to have their say, passengers should go to www.transportfocus.org.uk or londontravelwatch.org.uk

Full details of the proposals and the public consultation can be found here and here.