Disappearing Chocolate Machines

Linked to post I made last week about food on the Tube, I received an email from Billy last week with the following poser:

"Around Easter time this year, every single Cadbury's chocolate machine on the Underground - at least, every single one I've seen over the last six months or so - has been taken out of service. Some have been removed entirely, some just sit there, their fronts turned inside out with a 'This machine has been taken out of service' sticker.


I had noticed that in the last few months before their demise, they'd been rewarding me with chocolate without me paying a penny. I'd got two packets of Mini Cream Eggs this way, and at Westminster I'd put a pound coin in, only for it to come straight out again...but gave me some chocolate anyway! Even so, getting rid of the lot seems a bit extreme, surely, it's ending a century of tradition.

I was at least comforted with the Coca Cola machines still working, at £1 they were actually cheaper than a lot of other places that sell them...except in the last few weeks these seem to have gone as well, I usually get a bottle from Green Park but they've vanished!

Now I have to try and remember before I go inside a station to visit the newsagent first, it's much less convenient though. Any ideas why they've got rid of them, and do you know if they'll ever be back?"

First of all I thought he was wrong and he was referring to a point when the chocolate machines were faulty & were melting the chocolate. But then I spent one evening coming home deliberately looking at the platorms where I knew there were machines and he was right, they had gone.

Now to be honest losing Cadbury's machines isn't a great hardship for me as I hate Cadbury's chocolate. The fact that it's taken me months to even notice they were missing also shows I'm not going to mourn their passing. Like many people I've also lost count of the times my money has been swallowed by those machines, with no chocolate in return.

But like Billy I wonder if their disappearance is permanent? Has the concession gone to Mars instead (which would be a result for me)? Will we ever see Tube platform chocolate or drinks machines again?