How long has there been unmanned stations?

[Harlesden]

Where and when was the first official working day of an unmanned station?

 

[6Gman]

Presumably some stations have been unmanned since opening?

 

[30907]

Depends what you mean by "unstaffed" and "stations" but I assume you are referring to passenger facilities.

The GWR introduced unstaffed "haltes" (served by railcars/auto trains) in the early 1900s, and also had "platforms" - not sure of the difference, being an SR man! Others followed suit quickly. I would think there had been some unstaffed stations even earlier.

The drive towards de-staffing came in the mid 60s with "paytrains" - the East Suffolk Line was one of the first (G E Fiennes, I tried to run a railway, refers).

 

[Eagle]

Unstaffed stations are as old as the railway itself.

 

[deltic]

One definition of a railway station is "A station is (a) a stopping place for trains, (b) attended by railway staff, with (c) channels for access and exit for passengers, (d) means to obtain authority to travel (normally a booking office), and (e) some sheltered area for those awaiting trains. If any of these elements is missing, then the thing is not a station but a halt or platform."

So a good starting point is when was the first halt opened?

 

[JohnCarlson]

Unstaffed stations are as old as the railway itself.

Yes although depends on your definition of stations. In the NE at least passengers could sometimes board from the ground a coach attached to a coal train after having bought a ticket from a pub or a pit office. I dont know if this meets your definition of "unmanned" or even a "station."

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I'm sure there are also examples of stations that were never staffed per se, they just had the signaller of the station's box issue tickets. Does that count as unstaffed?

Edit - Also, Dilton Marsh for one used to have tickets issued from a nearby house which had no connection to the railway.

 

[6Gman]

One definition of a railway station is "A station is (a) a stopping place for trains, (b) attended by railway staff, with (c) channels for access and exit for passengers, (d) means to obtain authority to travel (normally a booking office), and (e) some sheltered area for those awaiting trains. If any of these elements is missing, then the thing is not a station but a halt or platform."

So a good starting point is when was the first halt opened?

That's a very useful definition! The rarest category is presumably those lacking c) [means of public access/egress] such as Bala Junction, Afonwen.