Cupar and Leuchars ticket office opening hours announcement

Cupar and District councillor Margaret Kennedy has welcomed ScotRail’s announcement that the opening hours of the ticket office at Cupar railway station will not be cut. However Leuchars’ ticket office still stands to lose almost thirty hours per week.

ScotRail previous proposed that Cupar would lose 14.5 hours of ticket office opening time each week, with reduced weekday hours only partially offset by longer hours on Saturdays. The station’s ticket office would have been closed completely on Sundays under the plans.

However in an announcement last week, ScotRail published revised plans which mean the ticket office will remain open on weekday evenings, retain its opening hours on Sundays and open for longer than at present on Saturdays.

There is no change to the proposed reduction in opening hours for Leuchars’ ticket office, except a minor change to the opening and closing times on Sundays.

Willie Rennie said: “I am glad that ScotRail have ditched their plans to cut opening hours at Cupar ticket office, but it begs the question why they are determined to press ahead with even larger reductions at Leuchars. While most tickets are now bought online, a significant fraction of passengers still prefer to buy tickets in person.

“In particular, the cuts could also make it harder for passengers to access concessionary fares for seniors and children which cannot be purchased at ticket machines or online.”

Cupar and District councillor Margaret Kennedy said: “I welcome this announcement from ScotRail which signals a change of direction from the company. I was concerned by the proposed reductions to opening hours which would have seen Cupar lose its ticket office service on weekday evenings and entirely on Sundays.

“It is important that we encourage people to use the train where possible, and therefore we need to make services as easy to use as possible.”

St Andrews and Strathkinness councillor Jane Ann Liston said: “'Leuchars, which serves St Andrews, is the third busiest station in Fife, being used by 528,122 passengers 2023-24, an increase of 14.5% on the previous year. It therefore makes no sense to slash its ticket-selling opening hours, in particular weekend evenings when visitors are likely to be travelling, while backtracking on the cuts in Cupar.

“Previous clarifications that the changes won’t affect the opening of other facilities at the station such as the waiting room and toilets are welcome, but reducing the opportunities to buy tickets at the station many will cause people to be rightly concerned that these other facilities at this remote location could be cut in future.”