Edmonson tickets a lost "cause" for ever?

For that matter, sometimes the receipt is on card too, if you buy from a machine. I have had paper tickets on the main line and I find them annoyingly flimsy.

 

and yet you want to attribute doing away with steam to me?.

 

You've got your Enthusiast Blinkers on and are taking my statement to mean I dislike them - show me where in my post I said I disliked them.

I mean what I say - they mean nothing to me as I have no experience of them. Nowhere did I say "do away with them because I don't like them."

0/10.

 

Au contraire, I suggest that following your logic would as much negate steam as diesel from railway use - and gladly acknowledge that this would be the inverse of what you would wish to achieve.

 

It shouldn't - and I can think of plenty that I've visited that manage this very well. One of the purported advantages of EPOS systems is that the card and purchase receipts can be combined - an advantage that from personal experience I find questionable.

 

Be an idea for a Diesel gala.....................

Anyone?

 

Heritage diesels and heritage tickets at a heritage railway? You must be out of your mind!

 

Pre-booking guarantees a seat on a particular train

No it does not - other than at events such as Santas where pre-booking is a requirement for all passengers.

 

I know nothing about the NNR, save that they used to issue Edmondsons and may still do.

Any firm that adds an "administrative charge"" merely for just joing their job does not get my money, I'm afraid.

 

Now, there's a thought...

Wonder if any NCR equipment has been preserved anywhere?

 

I think that Daft has the vision of eventually everyone having their phone as a ticket or buying one online or from a TVM, and then doing away with those pesky booking offices which need humans to make them work!

 

While tickets can of course be mailed out in advance that then costs the railway postage which is not inconsequential if you sell large quantities of tickets via this method (unless you make the buyer pay for it, which they may or may not). Collecting at the station is of course still possible but does nothing to address the issues of long queues when there is a lack of volunteer booking clerks to staff enough ticket windows.

As to the ticket buying process being an illusion of things gone by - let me tell you that 99% of folk I see buying tickets* couldn't give a sod about the 'illusion of how things were done', they imply want a train ride. Most stuff the tickets away as soon as they get them, followed by much fumbling and surprise when we wish to clip them. Younger visitors have zero interest in the ticket buying process - they simply want to get on the platform and see the trains.

* When acting as platform staff.

As far as good customer service goes, most purchasers are not stupid. If you buy something at a discount, then you must expect there be to be conditions attached to that. As I explained earlier buying 24hrs in advance gets you £5 off the entry price to Beaulieu - but you are then locked into visiting at some point during the following 364 days so its not to lose your money. Similarly it is common practice at one railway to not provide refunds on pre-booked tickets (unless the circumstances are serious) and will instead insist the booking be moved to another date or a 'gift voucher' be issued (no different in principle to taking an item back to a shop without a receipt).

Once again I fear we are entering the 'Enthusiasts' versus 'general public' debate. While the former (and I assume that will include virtually everyone posting on this forum) considers it vital that the 'illusion of the past is maintained' the general public, who provide the bulk of the Heritage sectors revenue are less picky. Most visitors come to Heritage railways to be entertained - not lectured or instructed that they must behave as though it were still 1960, 1950, 1930, etc and while the issuing of Edmonton tickets in the traditional manor should not be dropped, it is essential that Heritage railways move with the times and find ways of accommodating modern trends for advance purchasing - where the ability to skip queues is an inherent part of their appeal.

 

If the online booking facility is provided by a 3rd party (i.e. not the railway itself) then they will of course require a way of making money so add on a fixed fee every time a purchase is made. The railway can either absorb this itself or pass it on to the customer - the latter being the standard practice for concerts Theatres, travel agents and some airlines

 

However given the very disappointing visitor numbers the railways last 2 diesel galas produced, then its not exactly surprising some members will continue to advance these thoughts.

 

If everybody skips queues by buying online, don't they just join another queue at the barrier, of fellow queue avoiders?

99% of folk I see buying tickets* couldn't give a sod about the 'illusion of how things were done', they imply want a train ride - You have statistical evidence to support this statement? You have asked them all?

 

I do not know how many heritage type lines have 'barriers' as such. I get the impression, here anyway, that the majority have tickets checked on the train by the TTI's.
The smaller, less busy lines - and per se probably the least affluent - will no doubt find Edmonson tickets more than satisfactory. Busier lines may have other ideas.

 

I'm sure they have but a ticket on your phone is all well and good until the battery dies or the screen breaks and you can't show it to the RPI or scan it at a barrier. I booked Coventry - Gosford and return the other week and downloaded my e-ticket onto my phone. No barrier scanner at BNS would accept it so was down to a human being to check it on my phone and open the barrier for me.

 

I think you underestimate your public. They do want a train ride - that is the core of what they have come for. But a large part of what draws them is the vision of the past that preserved railways themselves on. That is worth protecting, before a series of compromises lead to recreation not of the 1950s BR, but something that the progressive managers like Fiennes would have sought to create - and which preservation was in part a reaction against.

Where railways get education right, they leave visitors better informed than when they arrived. Not by lecturing them, but by providing some useful signage, or staff who can provide some context, or other little things.

The acid test comes with liveries. What is the reaction of enthusiasts to railways choosing their own liveries, rather than using authentic liveries for the line before? If we aren't prepared to tolerate those - and collectively, as enthusiasts, it seems we are not - then why should we be so willing to dispense with other parts of our railway history?

 

So from what I can gather from 20 pages - there is no reason why heritage railways can not issue Edmondson tickets - even with online booking, advanced booking, group bookings etc etc. At the same time, it is argued that the symbolic value of an Edmondson ticket is only for a hardcore few and most passengers don't care. But that we don't have any statistical evidence to support that people do or don't care, only impressions and thoughts based on what people see.

Unless I've missed it - is there any difference in cost? I could understand the argument if it was 'system x costs us £5000 a year to run while system y will cost us £2000' the savings can be used to pay for a,b and c.'

 

I presume that these faults would be seen as the "customers problem" and nowt to do with the TOC. Pretty much like if you lost your conventional ticket... You do, of course have the option of ringing someone in India for help!