West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Should a serious accident occur those lines that issue computerised tickets should know fairly quickly how many passengers were on the train at a given point. It is a question the emergency services would ask. Of curiosity, how long would it take for Edmonson ticket issuestake to provide that information?

 

Card tickets could be sold as not-for-travel souvenirs for £2 a go with visitors allowed to date stamp them,

Jon

 

Does this mean BL no longer has Edmondson tickets at all?
Not even for cash (remember cash?)?
Not even for Platform tickets?
What about other Stations?

I, too, am disappointed.

(Anybody want my collection of ticket nippers?)

 

If these computerised tickets were all open tickets or rovers, how would it help?

I don't really see how computerising your ticketing system can suddenly give you a passenger count on an arbitrary train between two stops later in the day. Even if all tickets are valid on booked services only, there's no guarantee everyone caught the train.

 

That's why I said you have to be careful how to phrase the question in order not to be misleading.

As the London Underground is a bit remote from Somerset: it's a bit like the time @Robin Moira White claimed she had worked seven WSR signalboxes in one shift - self-evidently false, as the WSR has five signalboxes! What she should have said, if she wanted to be a truthful and honest person, is that she had worked four signalboxes, three of them twice.

So with the question, you have to be clear it is ten successive stops at stations beginning with the same letter, and not ten successive stations.

 

Clarkson?

 

All stations transferred to the computerised tickets a month or so ago. There were three main reasons that I know of: 1) Blank card tickets were becoming almost impossible to source, 2) it makes the job of the person dealing with the day's takings much easier and quicker and 3) the printing machine is pretty much life-expired. Some of the most commonly-issued card tickets were removed from the racks immediately, but all stations should have a supply of the less-used tickets available if anyone requests them for a souvenir, however, the card tickets are no longer valid for travel.

The ability to see how many people are booked (but not necessarily travelling) on any particular train is built into the system should we ever decide to make advance booking a possibility, but AFAIK there are no plans to introduce this at present.

 

I know one very efficient tourist line that would have a fairly accurate headcount. Due to the nature of their business they need to know exactly how many tickets are sold per outward train journey. The only missing numbers would be those purchased on-line where the purchasers miss the train, but even then, on-line purchases need confirming at the point of travel. Return journeys would be less accurate but I am sure TTI's should have a reasonably good idea of the trains occupancy. Of course lines like the WSR with many stops and variations would be less likely to.
Fortunately the heritage sector has a good safety record.

 

Snowdon?
However you can get one way tickets.

 

The advanced class, which I have only done twice, is NINE in one evening!

Phew!!!

Robin

 

Amen to that.

(Even on this thread that's something we can all agree on)

 

Incidentally, it's now almost 35 years since a preserved railway first introduced computerised tickets, narrowly beating British Rail to it.

Someone once told me that if you go to the Computer Museum at Bletchley Park and boot up one of the exhibits, if it were to boot successfully it would start up that selfsame historic ticketing program - a significant historical artefact in itself!

 

Can nee wait till the 1940s weekend

 

The diesel turns still load 3 with no buffet?

 

Seems a great shame to me, clipping proper card tickets is very much an event for many passengers. Not necessarily something that would be mentioned in the absence of, but definitely noticed the presence of.
As an aside we're introducing EPOS to our stations, as you say it makes things so much easier, but we're still managing to incorporate card tickets as the valid tickets given to passengers.

 

Yes, but I believe there were seats he could have sat in and it was suggested that it was just a political stunt.

 

I think I'm right in saying that this was the first time this year that the diesel turn was formed of a short set - all the rest have been 6 coaches or more. Whether there is a buffet relies on there being sufficient volunteers.

 

Understandable, with plenty of precedent in the sector, and for valid reasons. But still, IMHO, to be regretted. Not for the loss of Edmonson cards (actually, not that great for the punter), but for the loss of an aspect of the living museum that a good preserved railway can represent. Railway preservation is about more than just the buildings, trackbed*, and vehicles.

* - I have similar feelings about the practice of using continuously welded FB rail in “non public” areas, and restricting Bullhead to stations. And, yes, I also acknowledge that as don’t volunteer, let alone for PWay, my voice carries relatively little weight.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

No - the ONLY way to know that is a passenger count on board. Even if all seats were sold on a pre-booked basis for both outward and return journeys (e.g. as for a Santa or mainline tour), there is a chance people won't turn up - it was mentioned recently on a 'sell-out' railtour that were were a few 'no-shows' and that this is normal (!) The only way to know how many people are on a train is to count.

Is this a full EPOS system? Your description makes it sound as though it is (the ability to book against a particular train). AFAIK, certainly, a couple of years or so back, such things were costing around £10k per terminal. An interesting expenditure for the West Somerset in present circumstances..........

Steven

 

Which line was that?