THE ticket office at Great Malvern Station will close daily at 1pm until mid- February because of staff shortages.

Central Trains says the situation has arisen be-cause staff members have left.

Company spokesman Ger-ald Burgess said: "We have made sure the busy morning period is covered by staff, but at the moment we cannot continue that throughout the day.

"We are currently training someone but it will take about three weeks until we are ready to go back to normal."

Central Trains have ad-vised passengers who travel in the afternoon or eve-ning to buy their tickets before 1pm or on the train, where conductors will be aware of the situation.

Mr Burgess said electronic information boards would still be operating to advise the public of arrival and departure times.