do you know how much was a ticket for the London underground in the
early '60s?

Not fully on-topic, but I remember pretty well that the price of the
first Milan Underground ticket (flat fare) in 1964 was 100 lire. This
was a huge difference with respect to normal bus and tram tickets
(single rides) which were 35 lire. And in fact one took the underground
only when strictly necessary ... I still remember taking a bus to school
from a place some 600 m from where I lived instead that 3 underground
stops (when raining, with good weather I walked).

In 1970 the prices were unified in the present "hourly tariff" (one
ticket for 60 minutes, as many changes as you like but only one trip on
the underground). Now it is one ticket for 75 minutes, and costs 1 euro.

In doing this, they were one of the few large organisations to be
completely transparent about decimalisation. Most took the opportunity
to introduce a hidden price increase,

We had a similar case with the introduction of the euro. Before that the
ticket costed 1500 lire. There were law disposition forbidding excessive
price increases with the transition lira-euro. Therefore ATM raised the
ticket from 1500 to 1900 lire on December 29. When two days later the
euro came, the "actual" increase was just from 1900 lire to 1936.27 lire
(1 euro).


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"Beyond Caring" wrote in message
...
On 9 Jun, 20:50, 1506 wrote:
On Jun 9, 9:33 am, nessuno2001 wrote: Hello
everybody,
do you know how much was a ticket for the London underground in the
early '60s?

A child's ticket from Westminster to New Cross in 1962/3 ish was 10d (approx
4p) - sticks in my mind because it was the first ticket I ever bought on my
own!

adrian

On 10 Jun., 10:11, Giovanni Drogo
wrote:

We had a similar case with the introduction of the euro. Before that the
ticket costed 1500 lire. There were law disposition forbidding excessive
price increases with the transition lira-euro. Therefore ATM raised the
ticket from 1500 to 1900 lire on December 29. When two days later the
euro came, the "actual" increase was just from 1900 lire to 1936.27 lire
(1 euro).


On the barcelona Metro there are signs saying things such as the
penalty for not having a cvaild ticket is 30 Euros and 5 cents. No
doubt the result of some very fair currency conversion.

Thank you for all the answers, very helpful.
Filippo

On 10 Jun, 09:24, "Adrian Clarkson"
wrote:
"Beyond Caring" wrote in message

...
On 9 Jun, 20:50, 1506 wrote:

On Jun 9, 9:33 am, nessuno2001 wrote: Hello
everybody,
do you know how much was a ticket for the London underground in the
early '60s?

A child's ticket from Westminster to New Cross in 1962/3 ish was 10d (approx
4p) - sticks in my mind because it was the first ticket I ever bought on my
own!

adrian

In the late sixties a day return from Northwood Hills to South
Kensington was 7s 6d, child 3s 9d, total for mum plus 2 going to the
museums, 15 bob. These days the adult fares (with oyster) come to £4
off-peak, and children free or £1, total £6. Strikes me as a
significant reduction in real terms, but then it's a lot more than a
short hop.

Stuart J

1506 wrote:

I found that a bus ticket for one stop was one and a half penny, and a
three-pence for about three or four stops in suburbs such as Edgware
or Stanmore. Is it right?

When I started work on Regent St in 1969 the Waterloo to Piccadilly
Circus fare was 3d. That would be just over 1p in currency or
USD0.02.

It cost twice as much to go from Waterloo to Oxford Circus, i.e. 6d of
2.5 new pence. That would be USD0.05 nowadays.

Needless to say that I find the present day London fare to be
extortionate.

How much, say, beer, bread or cheese would the 3d buy in 1969, compared
to the £1.50 fare today?

--
Simon

Brighton
ex-Westbury, ex-Aberystwyth

On 10 Jun, 11:08, "sweller" wrote:
When I started work on Regent St in 1969 the Waterloo to Piccadilly
Circus fare was 3d. That would be just over 1p in currency or
USD0.02.

It cost twice as much to go from Waterloo to Oxford Circus, i.e. 6d of
2.5 new pence. That would be USD0.05 nowadays.
Needless to say that I find the present day London fare to be
extortionate.

How much, say, beer, bread or cheese would the 3d buy in 1969, compared
to the £1.50 fare today?

This site is absolutely excellent for asking this kind of question:
http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/

So the 7s 6d fare from Northwood to South Ken in 1968 is worth GBP4.35
in 2006 based on RPI; GBP8.53 based on average earnings (because we're
paid twice as much now as we were then, after inflation); and GBP9.87
as a share of GDP (because capital gains have risen even more than
wages).

The 3d fare, meanwhile, is worth 15p based on RPI or 29p based on
average earnings.

The discrepancy in short-hop centre fares compared with long distance
fares in the 1960s seems almost unimaginable - especially given that
it's precisely those short-hop centre journeys where the system is
crowded.

Also interesting is the GBP2 forces return from Bristol to Darlington
in 1958. That's GBP32 in 1996 money based on RPI, GBP82 based on
average earnings, or GBP96 based on GDP. The SVR fare with Forces
Railcard today is actually GBP69.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

The message
from Chris Tolley contains these words:

Example coinage was on sale for a couple of years before it could be
spent. A plastic wallet labelled "Britain's First Decimal Coins". Anyone
could get a set.

The banks were happy to supply schools with some 1p and 2p coins ahead
of the change-over so that the children could get familiar with the new
coins. I pushed my luck with the local TSB and got hold of a tenner's
worth about a month before D-day, the next step being to invite parents
and grandparents into the classroom to share in the children's
experience. I had a *very* full classroom each morning* for a couple of
weeks - and I still had a tenner's worth of coins at the end!
[* We had to do some real sums in the afternoons!]

--
Dave,
Frodsham

On 10 Jun, 12:46, John B wrote:
So the 7s 6d fare from Northwood to South Ken in 1968 is worth GBP4.35
in 2006 based on RPI; GBP8.53 based on average earnings (because we're
paid twice as much now as we were then, after inflation); and GBP9.87
as a share of GDP (because capital gains have risen even more than
wages).

Apologies for self-follow-up - for the avoidance of doubt, the GBP9.87
figure and other references to GDP in the previous post are GDP *per
capita*. Measuring price changes as a % of absolute GDP would be
pretty meaningless...

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

Adrian Clarkson wrote on Tue, 10
Jun 2008:

"Beyond Caring" wrote in message
...
On 9 Jun, 20:50, 1506 wrote:
On Jun 9, 9:33 am, nessuno2001 wrote: Hello
everybody,
do you know how much was a ticket for the London underground in the
early '60s?

A child's ticket from Westminster to New Cross in 1962/3 ish was 10d
(approx 4p) - sticks in my mind because it was the first ticket I ever
bought on my own!


The Times digital archive, which more public libraries are making
available online to members, is a good data source.

Several mentions of fare increases during the sixties. This one dated 6
June 1963:

"The increases do not affect the 3d., 6d., 9d. and 1s. bus and
Underground fares, and the new scale will mean that London fares will
generally be at the rate of 3d. a mile up to seven miles, instead of
four miles as at present, with a lower charge for journeys over seven
miles."
....
"There will be no change in the cost of off-peak tickets on the
Underground but they will be extended to operate from 110 suburban
stations instead of 54, and will be issued on Saturdays and Sundays as
well as weekdays."

By 1965 the single fares were up to 4d a mile for the first 3 miles,
plus 3d a mile for miles 4-10. Above that, fares were raised by a flat
3d.

Some possibly more interesting stuff I came across included:

18 May 1965: "What is claimed to be the only robot railway ticket
collector in the world began work at 7 a.m. at Acton Town Underground
station, London. Automatic Bill, as the staff call the machine,
swallows tickets like oysters, and coughs up the bad ones."

10 Dec 1965:"Two main methods to reduce congestion are being planned --
to reduce the number of parking meters and to cut down actual parking
space available..."

"The "special measures" which the Minister said were being considered
for freeing London's roads from congestion include charges on vehicles
for using the roads. The various systems of road pricing or a
"congestion tax" on which the Smeed committee reported last year is
being examined by a working party of experts."

And on 11 January 1963: five paragraphs on page 5 about the case of a
"young woman secretary" from Richmond who was fined £2 with £2 costs for
travelling on the Underground without having paid her fare. An LTE
Inspector testified that even the Archbishop of Canterbury would be
asked to pay again if he could not produce a ticket on exit.
--
Lemmy