Anger over cash machine charges at Horsham Station

Fees are being charged to use cash machines at a number of Southern Rail stations

Free cash withdrawals were previously available from the ATM machines, but now a £1.99 withdrawal charge has been slapped on.

And Horsham is just one of around 60 stations throughout the south where the charges have been implemented, including Crawley, Three Bridges and Brighton.

One angry Horsham traveller said: “I was shocked and surprised when I went to withdraw some cash. It has always been free before at Horsham Station. It’s appalling that they are now charging to take cash out now.”

He said he was so incensed he decided to use a different cash machine ‘as a matter of principle.’

A number of complaints about the charges have been made to train operators Southern Rail, but a spokesman said the decision to introduce the charges had been made by the firm which supplies the machines.

Southern say that they themselves have also complained to the machine supplier, a firm known as Cardtronics. However, Cardtronics say they had ‘no alternative’ other than to introduce the charges.

A spokesman for Southern, Govia Thameslink Railway, said: “GTR has no control over this highly regrettable decision which was taken by Cardtronics who supply the machines.

“We have made clear our concerns to senior management at the company.

“The only option was to demand the machines be removed, but keeping them at stations at least gives passengers a choice.”

A spokesman for Cardtronics said: “On July 1st LINK, the UK ATM scheme, introduced the first of a series of 5 per cent cuts to the fee that banks pay ATM operators for cash withdrawals by their customers. In some locations, this no longer covers our costs for delivering the service.

“In these cases, our first recourse is to try to talk to the businesses who host our ATMs to find a solution. In this instance we asked Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) to accept a lower commission, which would have allowed us to keep the machines free-to-use. They declined this proposal, so we were left with the choice of charging a fee to consumers for withdrawing cash or removing the ATM altogether.

“This is not what we wanted to do, but we were left with no alternative.”