From the 'Suffolk Free Press' of Thursday 11 and 18 August 1966

 

Bus-stop service on Stour railway


Booking facilities at Sudbury and Haverhill will be withdrawn on Monday, a spokesman for the Norwich planning department of British Rail said last week.


Under the new system, tickets will not be issued at Sudbury and Haverhill stations but will be provided by a Conductor-Guard on the train. This system has been operating at the village stations along the line for some time.


Tickets bought on the train will be singles only and in addition will cover only that part of the Stour Valley line along which the passenger wishes to travel. At Marks Tey, for instance, he will have to re-book in order to get to London.


This means that at last the line will be a 'bus-stop' service as advocated by many of the public who suggested this as a worth-while economy. This, together with freight withdrawals, means three staff redundant at Haverhill, two at Sudbury and one at Glemsford.


END OF FREIGHT


It is expected freight services will be withdrawn from village stations on September 10, and at Haverhill and Sudbury from the end of October.


The full conductor-guard system will mean that the economics of the line will be clearer, but the passenger services, after October, will not have the support of freight services. Passenger receipts will have to stand on their own.

11 August 1966

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Another ticket for their collection


Booking facilities have now come to an end at both Haverhill and Sudbury railway stations, the last two stations on the Stour Valley line to retain this service. In future all tickets will be issued by the conductor-guards on the trains. The last ticket at Haverhill was bought at 4pm on Saturday by Patrick Dearman, a 17 year old student at Colchester Grammar School. He is pictured here collecting the ticket from his bearded brother Tim, who was Booking Clerk at Haverhill, but as from Monday has been moved to Ipswich. Both brothers are railway enthusiasts and have many relics of railways from the past, including up to 40 tickets issued on railway lines that have been closed.

18 August 1966