Four months back,  when I attended the launch of the East Suffolk line hourly service, I  took the opportunity to ask Greater Anglia Customer Service Director Andrew Goodrum  where the proposed ticket machines at Woodbridge station were and when they were going to arrive?

(This was – and remains – a very important question.  SCDC had recently decided to close the Woodbridge Tourist Information Centre in the teeth of opposition from a large number of residents, myself, and all of Woodbridge Town Council,  apart from Cllrs Holdcroft, Mulcahy and Sayle . These three were in favour  despite the fact that older Woodbridge residents would lose ticketing facilities.  Since then the  Centre has been closed and the ticketing facilities have been lost).

I blogged on Mr Goodrum’s helpful reply a couple of days afterwards:    “You will be pleased to know there is absolutely no need to lobby for these [machines] as they have been purchased a while back. They are not yet installed as they need weatherproofing because they are designed for indoor use.”

So, have these machines arrived? No they jolly well have not. And surely it cannot take four months to waterproof a machine, however lovingly you do it!

A week ago I wrote to Mr Goodrum:

You may remember we met at the launch of the hourly service from Lowestoft to Ipswich, back on December 9^th.  I was – and continue to be – a huge fan and supporter of this service which is so useful for so many of us in Suffolk Coastal. I use it regularly myself – both to reach Ipswich and to travel north.

On the day of the launch I took the opportunity of bending your ear about the proposed ticket machine which Greater Anglia was due to install on the platform at Woodbridge. You assured me that the machine had actually already been purchased but that there would be a delay in installation as it would need to be weatherproofed.

This was four months ago. I do hope you can tell me that installation is now imminent – and indeed give me an e.t.a. –  as I have a number of constituents who are anxious to use it.  

He has not – so far –  replied.  I am currently following the matter up further

PS This does not solve the equally strange  conundrum of the story in the EADT a day or two before the launch. Our local MP Therese Coffey, and her assistant, Woodbridge Town Council’s deputy mayor (the aforementioned Cllr Mulcahy) were described as having  “joined forces and launched a campaign to urge train operator Greater Anglia to install an automatic ticket machine at the station“.

How could they  launch a campaign to urge the company to install something that the company had already  bought and was already planning to install?

It just doesn’t make sense!