Most station ticket machines no longer in use

By Rebecca Maer, Eastbourne Reporter

Passengers at Eastbourne railway station will be able to use only two of the six ticket machines from now on.

The other four have been taken out of service because Southern Railway says people are increasingly buying tickets online and scanning them on their phones.

The company said each machine costs thousands of pounds a year to maintain, money which can be used for other services.

The Eastbourne Reporter asked Southern:

1. When are the ticket machines going to be brought back into use - and how many will be operational?

2. Are the two with covers on permanently out of use? How long have they been out of use? Why are they not working?

A Southern spokesperson told the Eastbourne Reporter: "Station ticket machines are an important option in our range of ways to pay. However, as more people switch to quick, more flexible digital options, we do periodically review how much each machine is used.

"Where a machine is relatively lightly used and, crucially, where there is an alternative machine or machines that can manage the demand, like at Eastbourne, then we consider taking it out of service.

"Each ticket machine costs many thousands of pounds a year to maintain so this releases money we can invest in other services, further reducing the taxpayer subsidy required to run the railway.

"We've made sure that customers still benefit from the same functionality and accessibility with the remaining two machines."

Estimated station use at Eastbourne was 3,754,614 in the year to March 2025, an increase of 8% from the previous year, according to the Office of Rail and Road. This figure relates to station entries and exits.

It is the fourth busiest station in Sussex after Gatwick, Brighton and Haywards Heath.

Rail industry sources say figures show that two in three journeys are made digitally using barcode or smartcard tickets. Only ten per cent of tickets are sold using ticket machines.

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