[Anonymouse]

To be more accurate: who stole them? Legal it might have been, but they were public property, paid for with our taxes. No-one asked me or my family if we wanted them sold off, and we'd have told 'em to get stuffed if they had. Same with water, gas etc.
I hardly use the railways myself, but when I do I like to know there's a human on hand to sell me a ticket when - not if, when - the machines go wrong.