Plans to close railway station ticket offices in Warwick and hundreds more across England have been scrapped, following a government U-turn.

Transport secretary, Mark Harper, today (October 31) said the government had "asked train operators to withdraw their proposals".

Transport Focus said it had received over 750,000 responses from individuals and organisations in a public consultation, 99 per cent of which were objections.

Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents all train companies, announced the move to close the offices at the start of July.

The plans could have seen thousands of offices - including those at Warwick and Warwick Parkway - close over the next three years.

The news was instantly met with local resistance, with MP for Warwick and Leamington Matt Western launching a petition to save the local offices.

"The decision to close nearly all ticket office stations across England will have a huge impact on passengers who use the service and look to the ticket office staff for support and guidance as they're booking their journeys," he said at the time.

"The staff at our local stations are always on hand to offer guidance and help and have worked tirelessly through some really tough years.

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"Through the pandemic, they were on the frontline, serving customers despite the risk to their health and keeping our rail services moving.

"The focus should be on providing customers with the much used and appreciated service at our local stations, not making changes that will make it harder for passengers to purchase tickets and get advice from ticket office staff."

The U-turn comes just weeks after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed closing offices as "the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers" with "only one in 10 tickets are sold currently in ticket offices".