Edmonson tickets a lost "cause" for ever?

Also, something to add is that it can depend on what the passenger is looking for. For example I’ve seen a few ‘war on the line’ events recently where the loco is in BR livery and the coaches are MK1s. My thoughts are ‘that is a funny representation of 1943’, but for many people, if the station is decked out in wartime posters, sandbags, and people in uniform and it ‘looks like a station during WW2’, they will overlook the unauthentic train that is taking them for their ride. In other words, the culmination of a lot of little things can be more important than the ‘one big thing’.

Cite your sources. Saying there is plenty of evidence is not evidence. National stereotypes are pointless sweeping generalisations. I find it bizarre that railway enthusiasts lament the use of crude generalisations about people interested in railways but are quite happy to deploy them about other people when it suits them.

If people are not getting at the heart of what they want from their sources then they are not doing a very good job of dealing with their informants. Nothing to do with the passports of the informants.

Your source for your views is your impression. That is fine, but don’t make it out to be more than it is. You’ve spoken to people informally about the issue over the course of a few years.

All of which have absolutely nothing to do with the crux of your argument that edmondsons are incompatible with advanced purchases.

So to go back to your decade plus as a volunteer - what percentage of passengers advance book? What has been the year on year increase in advanced bookings? How much per year does your railway spend on mailing out pre-booked tickets? How many work hours does this take? How many customers are lost due to the queues at the ticket offices?

I’ve no strong feelings either way on the issue of edmondsons or not. Weak arguments that deploy simplistic generalisations to buttress over-stated claims, on the other hand...

 

Your example is not just confined to the British. People all over the world don't like their food spat in.

 

Don't put words in my mouth please.

I have NEVER said that Edmonton tickets are incompatible with online purchases - what I have said is that Heritage Railways should be moving to offer online advance bookings ASAP.

Doing so merely provides more options for visitors - and if done correctly can boost railway finances too. For example by booking in advance during the school half terms the Bluebell was able to boost visitor numbers when the weather was not conducive to people deciding to come on a walk up basis.

Edmonton tickets can still be provided to such visitors - either by queuing up with everyone else, having an alternative pick up point or if suitible methods of checking validity of printouts / QR codes are in place at the ticket barriers by coming back to the ticket office later. Edmonton tickets can of course be sent out by post, but this then locks them to a specific date and does not allow a Beaulieu type setup where the advance purchase ticket is not date limited.

 

It's Edmonson! Not Edmonton!

 

As regards advanced bookings, this is hard to quantify at present as it is only now being fully embraced by the Bluebell (pre bookies iniatives being previously limited to specific products such as the 'kids for a quid' promotion over half terms. However I am given to understand from a friend involved with the SpaValley that moving to a system that fully embraced online booking for all tickets produced a decent uplift in ticket sales without any extra postage costs due to the ability to make use of barcodes / printouts to verify purchases.

Over the years on the Bluebell though, online booking has certainly been requested by a small (but growing number of visitors) particularly when queues become large. This is not helped by a lack of volunteers to routinely man both ticket windows these days. As to how many get put off? Well it's hard to say as people generally don't come up to you on the ticket barrier and say "I'm not coming because of the queues / lack of online booking" - though they do occasionally comment on the wait. What is certainly true is that if the weather is lousy during half terms then pre booked tickets certainly encourages visitors to attend when they otherwise would not have done (which is reflected in the figures not just hearsay).

 

Digital device auto-correct to blame

 

No but even so statically the brits are least likely to complain.

OK, so you want to try something else, how about this https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/releases/one-nine-reluctant-speak-out-about-poor-care

 

My new Iphones the same!

 

Actually no, it’s neither: it’s Edmondson!

After 22 pages, the title of this thread is also wrong!

 

I'm sure I have been to an event in recent years where something of that style was used. I've just had a quick look to see if I could find it, but couldn't - but I will have a look again later on today. I can remember commenting about the design at the time to those I was travelling with, and it would certainly have been a ticket that would have been kept for my "collection" afterwards.
I've still got all my BR ones of that style from the 1975-87 period (sad, isn't it....!). Not all of them are Inter-City branded, as things like the One day Anglia Ranger and "Happy Wanderer" (ie Merrymaker) branded ones are in my collection. The one on the right is interesting....

 

It certainly is. Cambridge to York, circular steam ride, then back to Cambridge, all for £6.50. Wasn't that remarkably cheap even then?

 

Ive got an Ipswich-Derby day return (not via London) from July '78 for which the adult return fare was £7.60, so that makes the special fare from Cambridge remarkably good value.
The York circulars were the normal regular runs operating at that time (via Leeds & Harrogate), motive power for that day actually being 92220! On checking my notebook from that period, it was obviously a special train from Cambridge to York, rather than using normal services. 37 026 hauled the CA-PBO leg, with 47 074 onward via Spalding/Lincoln/Doncaster/Selby to York. Same 47 back to PBO on the return, but via the ECML this time, for 31 326 back to Cambridge!

 

That is a single case study with nothing else to compare it to. You need to have a similar survey for a number of different states in order to substantiate your claim.

What are the figures - 10% increase? 20% increase? How much of it is potential statistical 'noise'?

Then I misunderstood your original post, but unless I am mistaken, no one who is arguing in favour of using Edmondson tickets has argued against online booking, advanced booking etc etc

 

Rubbish

 

Bluebell inspects your ticket on entering the platform. Got mine checked when I visited the other week. NVR does for galas.

 

In my experience heritage stations with manned barriers are few and far between. Kidderminster is set up to make it easy to do but it is rarely done. Of the last few railways I've visited the only example I can think of is Welshpool station. There are certainly a few where access is via the platform anyway - at Buckfastleigh it forms the main route to/from the car park, and I think at Toddington the ticket window is on the platform.

Coincidentally as I was writing this my 4 year old daughter ran up to me bearing an SVR Child Day Rover from a few months back and shouted "Look! My ticket!"

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Scotsman turns up at the NVR at the end of September.

 

You mean like this:



Steven

 

All tickets will be prebooked but I agree that checking them all will be fun.