Trivia: Ticket office with the most minimal opening hours.

[amahy]

Title says it all for this one. Permanently closed ticket offices don’t count, of course!

 

[AlterEgo]

I'll start the bidding at Glazebrook. 0710-1000 Monday to Friday only.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jun 2026 ==

Actually Feniton beats that. 0730-1000 Monday to Friday!

 

[centraltrains]

Jewellery Quarter has interesting ones:

Monday to Thursday: Unavailable
Friday: 16:00 - 18:00
Saturday: 11:00 - 13:00, 15:00 - 17:00
Sunday: Unavailable

(6 hours per week)

There's got to be one somewhere with just an hour or two a week surely...

 

[pitdiver]

It used to be Warblington 0745-0915. I asked this very same question a few months ago.

 

[TransportHub]

Salfords (Surrey) I find amusing
Monday to Friday: 06:30 - 10:35
Saturday: Unavailable
Sunday: Unavailable

4h05m a day, not 4hours, 4hours and 5mins. I wonder what the reason for the extra 5mins is?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Salfords (Surrey) I find amusing
Monday to Friday: 06:30 - 10:35
Saturday: Unavailable
Sunday: Unavailable

4h05m a day, not 4hours, 4hours and 5mins. I wonder what the reason for the extra 5mins is?

Perhaps the staff member in question closes up just in time to travel home on the 10:39 to Redhill / East Croydon and beyond?

 

[TransportHub]

Maybe, I don't know how long cashing up takes but OBS and Conductors on Southern get ~10mins so 4mins seems a bit tight. I'm not sure if they lock the station loos up too

 

[warwickshire]

Maybe, I don't know how long cashing up takes but OBS and Conductors on Southern get ~10mins so 4mins seems a bit tight. I'm not sure if they lock the station loos up too

Its, possible, they could travel to another station nearby, to finish off their shift,
Maybe doing other station duties, so staff can get covered so they can take their breaks,
Unless part time vacancies do exist ?

 

[warwickshire]

I'll start the bidding at Glazebrook. 0710-1000 Monday to Friday only.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jun 2026 ==

Actually Feniton beats that. 0730-1000 Monday to Friday!

Another one on the same line, is Chassen Road, which is a couple or so stops further onto Manchester Oxford Road,

However Chassen Road is Monday to Friday 0700 to 1000.

 

[Revilo]

Bescott Stadium ticket office and waiting room used to be open:

Monday from 7am to 9am
Closed Tuesday to Thursday
Friday from 9am to 11am
Saturday from 10am to 3pm

But the WMR website says that it is now closed, though Trainline has the hours above.

 

[sot]

Kidsgrove as I remember it was literally whenever the lady was in in the morning, or whenever she was not brewing up for freight staff.

 

[James H]

Some of the London Overground stations have pretty short hours (eg Rotherhithe - Monday to Friday: 07:30 - 10:00)

On Saturdays, tickets are sold over the counter at Dalston Junction only between 12:30 and 14:45

 

[Sun Chariot]

It used to be Warblington 0745-0915. I asked this very same question a few months ago.

Yes, Warblington ticket office:

• Monday to Friday: 07:45 – 09:15

Two stops down the line, Bedhampton ticket office:

• Monday to Friday: 06:45 – 09:45
• Saturday: 10:00 – 13:00

 

[81A]

I found the following with fairly short hours (if you believe national rail enquires and schedule 17):
Keynsham-open from 0645 to 0930
Rowlands Castle-open from 0635-0915

 

[1D53]

On my last visit to Great Bentley the ticket office was 0700-1400, oddly Tuesday and Friday only - a Google shows now closed full stop.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Not as short as some mentioned here, but Hag Fold is 06:25 to 12:55 weekdays only.
It's also often closed.

 

[Geeves]

Moorside was similar hours till it's unfortunate end just after they spent mega money fixing it up! I never got to work it without it raining inside!

I also remember Disley was pretty short, 0710 sure I was cashing up at 1000 ha. I did dutifully go finish my shift at Hazel Grove. I know the guy at Woodsmoor those short hours are his actual shift.

 

[81A]

Also, I’d imagine the second ticket office at stations with multiple (especially smaller ones-City Thameslink springs to mind) would have (very?) short hours…

 

[Michaeltarquin]

Castle Bar Park station has a ticket office listed on the most recent Schedule 17 as open Monday – Friday from 07:00 – 10:00. However, National Rail confirms this is closed and it’s previously been mentioned on here that this has not been staffed since Covid. But officially it has not been permanently closed yet, so I don’t know if this counts or not!

It used to be Warblington 0745-0915. I asked this very same question a few months ago.

Someone who previously visited Warblington ticket office advised that the person there didn’t have any way of selling them a ticket! There was no ticket issuing machine at the station and they didn’t have a portable ticket machine either.

I assume when this arrangement started, the staff member would have been issued an Avantix ticket machine (or a Sportis one before that), a card reader and a small cash float. As with Castle Bar Park, Warblington's ticket office is still shown as open on the most recent Schedule 17.

So this could be argued as a non-permanently closed ticket office with 0 opening hours in reality (as you cannot actually buy a ticket from there!)

 

[sk688]

Oldfield Park 0645-0940 Mon-Fri is fairly short but to call it a ticket office would also be bold

 

[Whisky Papa]

Moorside was similar hours till it's unfortunate end just after they spent mega money fixing it up! I never got to work it without it raining inside!

I also remember Disley was pretty short, 0710 sure I was cashing up at 1000 ha. I did dutifully go finish my shift at Hazel Grove. I know the guy at Woodsmoor those short hours are his actual shift.

I was asked if I'd cover a full week at Disley when I was General Purpose Relief at Glossop, the carrot being 'job and finish' given that it was rather a long drive from home in Todmorden. It coincided with a mini-heatwave, so getting home for lunchtime was a bonus! Unfortunately I didn't get to cover the full week, by Thursday and Friday I was redeployed to more demanding tasks.

I thought the hours at the part-time stations around Manchester were fixed to give a 17.5 hour week, ie half of the full-time 35? I can't recall them accruing additional hours each week that would be 'repaid' by additional rest days rostered as required, which was the norm at most of the full-time stations then.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Kidsgrove as I remember it was literally whenever the lady was in in the morning, or whenever she was not brewing up for freight staff.

Kidsgrove is an odd one as the ticket office opens at 6:10am which is after the first train of the day that serves the station has left.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Stanlow & Thornton used to have a tiny ticket office which only opened for a short period in the afternoon when staff were leaving the refinery. I remember it in the 1980s when there were a couple of short workings from Stanlow & Thornton to Rock Ferry, pre-electrificiation south of the latter.

A photo of the ticket office may be found at

Stanlow and Thornton railway station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Whisky Papa]

Kidsgrove is an odd one as the ticket office opens at 6:10am which is after the first train of the day that serves the station has left.

I'm not sure that is all that odd - certainly it was the case at all the stations I used to work on the SE side of Manchester a few years back.

Currently Todmorden opens at 0640, having missed the departure of five trains due after 0600.

 

[sot]

Having turned up many of time around 0700-0730 to be greeted with a locked door I am glad I do not have to rely on this office anymore.

 

[Amlag]

Okehampton ( uniquely on the National rail network ? ) has a Booking Office that for all intents and purposes
gives the impression of being open; timetables, paperwork, tickets, coins etc on the counter and jacket on chair back and occasionally people can even be found waiting at the window to be served, despite a notice advising it’s ( unfortunately) a museum !