Wolverhampton railway station £300k centre just the ticket

The travel centre has been transformed as part of Virgin Trains' £20 million station investment programme, following revamp work which started in October.

The new ticket centre, which sits to the right of the main entrance next to the main ticket office, was previously used for advance bookings only but is now home to six new fast ticket machines to cut queuing times and allow customers to collect tickets more quickly.

David Whitehouse, station manager, said the work was necessary due to growing demand at the station.

He added that the machines will be especially crucial over a busy Christmas period.

"We have moved from three machines to six, which has allowed us to double the amount of machines that are available to customers," he said.

"Queueing times are less, customers are able to come in to collect tickets, and buy tickets quicker, get through the station, get on their trains and on their way.

"This week, the next three days are looking to be our three busiest days of the year so we are very happy that we have been able to program the works and get it open for this time of year.

"Over the weekend, we had 2,500 transactions through the six new machines, which is quite a lot actually. It is more than we expected.

"The machines are holding up well, the technology we have got on them is really holding up well, so we are really pleased with how it is going."

As well as the six machines, three for payment by cash and three by card, there is a waiting area and a screen displaying information about arrivals and departures.

Glass doors have also been removed to make way for an open plan entrance.