MORE than £180,000 worth of rail tickets were sold from Woodbridge Tourist Information Centre last year - a rise of 20 per cent over the previous 12 months.

MORE than £180,000 worth of rail tickets were sold from Woodbridge Tourist Information Centre last year - a rise of 20 per cent over the previous 12 months.

Now the service is set to be improved with a six days a week computerised system, making it easier to book tickets for travel across the country.

“We will now be able to sell tickets throughout the day, every day of the week except Sunday, and it will also be much quicker, as thanks to some new equipment we can issue tickets at the same speed as any main line railway ticket office,” said Clare Baker, Suffolk Coastal's visitor services officer.

“Our old service had always been a popular way to get tickets, but it did struggle to come up to the standards we want to offer. It could be quite a struggle to get through tickets to other parts of the country, and could often take 20 to 25 minutes to complete the transaction.

“This new computerised system is much more customer-friendly so we should be able to sort everything out in a couple of minutes. It is also much easier for our staff to use, so we can ensure that the service is on offer all day, rather than being closed over lunchtime as is currently the case.”

The TIC offers a full holiday extras service to personal callers, including airport and port parking with or without accommodation, reservations for airport and port lounges, London show and accommodation packages, Eurolines and National Express coach tickets and major attraction tickets, and in the near future Travelstyle European and British coach holidays.

From April, TICs at Felixstowe, Woodbridge and Aldeburgh open Monday to Sunday from 9am to 5.30pm, although the ticket booking facility will close at 4.15pm every day. Felixstowe TIC has a rail ticket booking service.