"Terry Harper" wrote in message ...
"Rizla Ranger UK" wrote in message
om...

During this period, what were 'Workmans Tickets'?
I've heard this was a special pricing system for
workers in the Docks etc. How did this work?

Were there a list of prescribed occupations which
qualified for 'workmans ticket' and if so, how did
you prove you qualified?

How much below the standard fare did this price fall?

When was the 'workmans ticket' introduced and when did it stop?

Regarding the above, typically workmen's tickets were issued before 08:00,
and were half-price, IIRC. I took a train back in about 1947, from Ludlow to
Worcester, and we travelled on Workmen's tickets. As I was only about 14 at
the time, it just required one to leave before 08:00. No other qualification
required.

They had been available for a very long time, but I don't know when they
ceased. That was on the GWR still, I fancy. Presumably the same rules
applied elsewhere. Regarding buses, all the workmen's services I know of
charged normal fares.

Oh, what happy memories this brought back! Workmen's weeklies!!

When I was at university I supplemented my meagre allowance working
for the Lincolnshire Road Car (or Road Car as it was known locally) as
a conductor. My first allocation was to S****horpe where the workmen's
buses to the steelworks ran almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The first SUNDAY morning turn was: 3.40 am sign on, 3.50 dead car to
Yaddlethorpe X Roads, 4.05 Service Yaddlethorpe X Rds - Appleby
Extensions.

Full house, 56 or 60 seater: 20 minutes to get in SEVEN DAY weeklies -
slot in front of Setright Speed machine, but you had to carry the
tickets by hand. When you went upstairs you couldn't see the front
windows for a "fug" created either by Woodbines, Players Weights or
the atrocious "Old Holborn".

At that time in the morning, few words were spoken, especially as the
conductor had to get up from his "digs" in Brigg Road at 3 a.m. on a
Sunday and cycle to the depot, breakfastless and the canteen didn't
open until 9 a.m.

Okay you finished at noon but I was so hard up I had to go back for
the evening peak "duplicates".

Just after the war, Eastern National in Essex had workmen's tickets
specifically for the big Chelmsford employers, Marconi, Crompton
Parkinson, English Electric, Hoffmann's etc and ran similar services
for Crittall in the Braintree-Witham area. These services were ONLY
available to passengers holding a weekly ticket and they were marked
in the timetable with a P for Priority. "Priority will be given to
weekly season ticket holders".

Outside of London, some operators simplified workmen's fares (usually
from 6 a.m. onwards until about 8) by making the Workmen's Return fare
the same as the ordinary single fare. It was, I think, part of
"getting Britain back on it's feet". Many timetables of the period
ask passengers to avoid 7-9 a.m. "when we are busy conveying workers"
Southern/Western National starred such journeys in their timetables
with "Limited Accommodation, subject to change without notice" (i.e.
non workers not welcome).

I do know that the London trams/trolleybuses/buses started as early as
we did for the Docks area and also for Smithfield and maybe other
places I do not know.

In far away Lincolnshire we didn't have any all night services but
there was only about a four hour gap when Road Car buses were not on
the road in the S****horpe area. We had ONE vehicle on the road, I
think, on an overnight express service from London to Cleethorpes
(certainly in the summer).

And three am on a Sunday morning is still a "killer" start even in
2003 I would guess. Do any still exist I wonder? But it's the
cigarette smoke upstairs that I mostly remember: it just hung in the
air and I probably got through the equivalent of a 100 Players Weights
on just a few journeys if reports about "passive" smoking are correct.

Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins