Railway buffet owner forced to cut staff due to tough trade

Carol Ritchie, who runs Ritchie’s Buffet in Angmering railway station, East Preston, has had to let a full-time member of staff go due to tough trading conditions.

This means she will have to close the buffet at 2pm every day, and also will not be able to take any holiday time.

She described Joseph Cundy as ‘such a good worker’ and ‘someone I could rely on’: “Lots of people we have told already are devastated.”

Joseph said he would miss working with Carol, 57, who he said ‘looked after me’ and he ‘could have a laugh with’. But he said ‘people had lost faith in the trains’ and now it is very quiet in the station.

Carol now only has one other staff member who works at the weekend.

She believed less people were getting the train because of the Southern rail strikes last year and the threat of more to come.

She said: “Even if the strikes don’t go ahead, people still believe there wont be enough trains so they travel by some other means.

“I’m just so frustrated and I am hoping it is going to get better.

“This is no way to live.”

This comes as negotiations continue between Carol and Southern Railway to get a reduction on her rent as compensation for the strikes.