Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department

Tram Ticket

Tram Ticket

Front + Back

Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, other

©  Reproduced with acknowledgement to Connie Telfer-Smith (née McJannett, Norfolk Island, South Pacific

 

Comment

1

Connie Telfer Smith (née McJannett)

Norfolk Island, South Pacific

Thank you to Connie Telfer-Smith who wrote:

Old Edinburgh Transport Ticket

    Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, etc. ©

"Looking through a collection of old books given to me by my Grandfather many years ago, I was fascinated when I found this ticket  -  used as a bookmark!

I just wondered how old it is.  A penny (1d) ride was a long time ago. The names certainly brought back memories. I also remember the conductor clicking the wee hole in the ticket for your destination!"

Connie Telfer-Smith (née McJannett), Norfolk Island, South Pacific:  July 31, 2014

 

Comment

2

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

Collecting Tickets

"Hi Connie.  Thank you for sending me the photos of your old ticket.  I was interested to see them.

Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, etc. ©

I've not mentioned the fact previously on the EdinPhoto web site but, for many years, I have collected tram and bus ticket, and have been a member of the Transport Ticket Society!

 Unfortunately, I find current tickets to be less interesting than many of the older ones."

Bell Punch Geographic Ticket

"Your ticket is known as a 'Bell Punch Geographic'

-  'Bell Punch' was the company that supplied the ticket.

- 'Geographic indicates that the fare stages were not just numbered, but were also named.

Most 'Geographic' tickets that I have seen have been dedicated to a single route.  e.g. There might be

- 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d tickets (each a different colour) each showing all the fae stages for Service 1

- 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d, 5d tickets (in same range of colours) each showing all the fare stages for Service 2

-  etc.***

***  This resulted in a vast number of different tickets for a large operator with many services and fares.

 I have over 1,000 different 'Bell Punch Geographic' tickets, all issued by London Transport  between 1930s and 1950s!

Tram Ticket

"The Edinburgh ticket above appears not to have been designed for use on for any particular service but, instead, appear to have been intended for use on many (possibly all) of Edinburgh Corporation Transport's tram or bus services.  (See below for whether tram or bus)  The ticket lists 17 different services (all in the range 1 to 26).

I have a 1939 map showing all the Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department bus and tram routes then.  There were:

-  25 tram services (all with numbers in the range 1 to 27)

-  23 bus services (all with numbers in the range 1 to 26)

I believe that your this ticket was for trams, rather than buses:

-  Many of the fare stages listed on the ticket were on tram routes but not on bus routes.  (e.g. Granton Road Station, Craighall Road, Churchhill.)

-  The conditions on the back of the ticket refer to 'Car'  i.e. 'Tramcar'."

1940s Tram Ticket?  **

"Your ticket looks to me as if it may well date from the 1940s, or possibly early-1950s.  Edinburgh trams were finally withdrawn from service in November 1956, many of the tram routes being individually replaced by buses over the previous few years.

A little research (possibly with the help of DLG Hunter's book, 'Edinburgh's Transport - The Corporation Years')  into exactly which year it was when the 17 tram services listed on this ticket were still running and no others, might identify the year of your ticket  -  but I'll not volunteer to do that research!"

**  UPDATE:  In fact this ticket is 1928.  See Comments 4 + 5 below.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  July 31, 2014

 

Comment

3

Gus Coutts

Duddingston, Edinburgh

Thank you to Gus Coutts for helping to date this ticket.  Gus tells me that he has lived in Edinburgh since 1940.  (I did not arrive in Edinburgh until 1963, seven years after the old trams stopped running.)

Gus wrote:

Tram Tickets since 1940s

"I think the ticket at the top of this page predates the 1940s.

I am a 1940 model and can only remember tram and bus tickets produced by the ticket machines which used a paper roll on which the machine printed the ticket.

These machines had a dial like the rotary dial on old telephones.  The conductor dialled the amount of the fare and turned the handle to produce the ticket.

I think that there were also controls for pre-setting the Fare Stage, Date, Service No., etc. which were printed on the ticket along with the Fare Amount paid. The conductor changed the Fare Stage Setting as the journey proceeded.

A Magenta stripe appearing down the middle of the paper roll told the conductor that it was time to insert a new ticket roll"

Late-1920s Tram Ticket?

    Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, etc. ©

"Could the numbers '7-28' at bottom right indicate 1928?"

Gus Coutts, Duddingston, Edinburgh:  August 1, 2013

 

Comment

4

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

1928

"Hi Gus.  Thank you comments.  The machines that you clearly describe above were TIM tickets.  Here is a photo from the 1930s of 12 clippies with their TIM Ticket Machines:

    Twelve Clippies with their TIM Ticket Machines, standing outside Annandle Street Depot in the 1930s ©

Late-1920s?

"Please click on this photo to enlarge it, and and read a few notes about the use of these machines in Edinburgh.  This type of ticket machine was first used on Edinburgh trams in 1933, so it seems quite plausible that the Bell Punch ticket below may date from the late-1920s, as you suggest."

Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, etc. ©

"This is an Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department. ticket.  That is the same name as appears on my 1929 map of Edinburgh tram and bus routes.

However, my 1926 map of tram and bus routes is titled: 'Edinburgh Corporation Tramways and Motors' 

This suggests to me that the tram ticket above will be no earlier than 1926.

I don't have any explanation as to why this ticket lists only 17 tram services (Nos. 1-8, 11, 12, 15-19, 25, 26), but there are:

-  26 services shown on the 1924 map (Nos. 1 to 26)

-  24 services shown on the 1926 map (Nos 1-18, 20, 21, 23-26).

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  August 1, 2014

 

Comment

5

Peter Williamson

Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

I met Peter Williamson this evening at a meeting of Lothian Post Card Club.  (We are both members of the club.)  Peter is a keen collector of tram and bus tickets, so I asked him a couple of questions about this ticket:

    Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, etc. ©

I asked:

1.  What is the number in the lower-right corner of this ticket?

2.  Why were some of the tram routes not included on this ticket?

He gave me simple answers to both questions.

Thank you, Peter.

Peter wrote:

July 1928

"The number in the lower-right corner of Bell Punch tickets of this period is, indeed, the date that the ticket was printed. 

In later years, Bell Punch used a code, printed on the ticket, rather than the actual date to indicate when the ticket was printed.

Conclusion:  This ticket would have been printed in July 1928.

Other Services

"There would not have been enough room on the ticket to print all fare stages for all of Edinburgh's tram routes.

So, there would probably have been a second (and possibly a third) ticket for use on the other tram routes that listed the fare stages for those routes."

Peter Williamson, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland:  August 1, 2014

 

Comment

6

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

1928

Penny Tram Tickets

"I was pleased to find Ticket 2 (below), amongst my collection of old Edinburgh tram tickets, today:

It's another Bell Punch penny tram ticket, dated 7/28, but giving the fare stages for several of the routes not included in the Ticket 1 which Connie Telfer Smith sent to me.

Here are both tickets displayed at a larger size so that the service numbers and fare stages can be read.  Between these two tickets, all tram services except 20-23 and 27.  Service 8 appears on both tickets - Why?.

Ticket 1

Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 1, 2, 3, other

©  Reproduced with acknowledgement to Connie Telfer-Smith (née McJannett, Norfolk Island, South Pacific

Ticket 2

Edinburgh Corporation Transport Department  Bell Punch Tram Ticket, 1928  -  Services 8, 9, 10, other

©  Copyright: Peter Stubbs  -   please contact peter.stubbs@edinphoto.org.uk

More Edinburgh Bus + Tram Tickets

"Here are 7 pages of old Edinburgh tram and bus tickets that I found in my collection while looking for Ticket 2 above:

Please click on the thumbnail images below or on one of the links below to these images to enlarge these pictures and read a little about some of the tickets.

A selection of Edinburegh Bus + Tram Tickets - 930s to 1990s ©            A selection of Edinburgh Setright + Autofare Bus Tickets  -  1950s to 1990s ©

A Selection of Edinburgh Bus Tickets with adverts on the backs of some of these tickets  -  1970s to 2012 ©            A Selection of EdinburghWayfarer Bus Ticketsand adverts on the backs of Wayfarer Tickets  -  1980s-2000s ©            A Selection of adverts on the backs of Edinburghh Wayfarer Tickets  -  1980s-2000s ©

A selection of Season Tickets for Edinburgh's LRT Buses, 1972-87  +  a ticket for Edinburgh Trams, 2014 ©           A selection of Season Tickets for Edinburgh's LRT Buses  -  1987-2002 ©

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:  August 2, 2014

 

 

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