BUSINESS leaders have joined the protests against plans to close the travel centre at Weymouth railway station.

Weymouth-Waterloo operator and station owner South West Trains (SWT) is set to close the office at the station and instead offer its service within the main ticket office.

The company says more people are booking their seats online and over the phone - but campaigners claim Internet shy passengers and those who value face to face contact will face longer queues.

Now the Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Tourism have added their support to the campaign to keep the travel centre open.

In a letter to SWT managing director Stewart Palmer, the chamber calls for the decision to be reviewed at high level without delay.' The letter explains that Weymouth is one of the UK's premier holiday resorts and the venue for Olympic sailing events in 2012 - and that the railway has an increasing role to play transporting people to and from the town.

It claims that only one ticket office window is open regularly and that call centre operators based overseas do not have the same knowledge and expertise as railway staff working at the station.

A chamber spokesman said: "There is absolutely no doubt in our mind that the imminent closure of Weymouth travel centre amounts to an unwise and considerable deterioration of service to the businesses and residents of Weymouth and Portland, as well as to our many visitors and tourists, which will steadily increase as the 2012 sailing Olympics come closer.

"Closure of the travel centre amounts to a very negative signal by South West Trains.

"The company needs to be increasing and upgrading the services at Weymouth, not closing them."

South West Trains is thought to be the only train operating company that still has travel centres.

Apart from Weymouth, it is proposed to close centres at Salisbury, Guildford, Bournemouth, Southampton, Winchester, Richmond, Poole and Woking sometime in the new year and replace them with shops or catering outlets.

The centre at London Waterloo will be the only one to remain open.