Solving the Season-ticket Problem
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Objections to the Unlimitedtravel Ticket Overcome by the 12-journey Ticket
WHERE there is more than one transport undertaking serving a particular area, season tickets have been criticized as an unfair method of competition. It has, therefore, been necessary for the Traffic Commissioners to investigate the complete circumstances in which multi-journey tickets are issued, and to give special consideration to the concessions for which they are available.
From a traffic point of view, the season ticket which is valid for any number of journeys between stated points, during a given period, has always been justified in that it would not normally be used more than twice, or, at the most, four times a day by the holder for the purposes of travelling to and from business.
If it be used on any other occasion, it is generally the case that the holder has persuaded friends to travel with him or her, and it is quite possible that they are travelling only because one of their party has a season ticket. /n any case, the extra journeys are not taken at peak periods and, therefore, the provision of the accommodation is not an extra charge on the transport undertaking. From the company'se point of view, the unlimited-travel season ticket is a traffic-stimulating asset.
But from the point of view of the Traffic Commissioners, the issue of such tickets, if it were not controlled, would make any attempt to standardize fares useless. Whilst the Commissioners realize the desirability of making concessions to certain types of regular passenger, such as workmen and schoolchildren, they insist that these concessions should be limited to a particular class of travel.
The solution of the problem is the multi-journey ticket, as distinct from the unlimited season ticket. Its use is becoming increasingly popular and it is valid for 12 journeys, on each of which the appropriate part of the ticket has to be caneelled by the conductor in the mariner described later.
In the industrial areas, it is impossible to expect passengers to make a financial outlay to purchase tickets valid for more than a week. This circumstance makes it practically impossible to limit the issue of tickets to the company's officers and agents, and it is necessary that these 12-journey tickets should be obtainable from conductors on the buses.
This would mean that, on the first two days of the week, at any rate, the conductor would have to carry tickets of different denominations for all the fare stages on his route. Therefore, a written ticket is the most satisfactory, provided that it is fraud-proof, and we publish a specimen of a non-transferable 12-journey ticket used by the Yorkshire (Woollen District) Electric Tramways, Ltd. It is available for 12 single journeys on the company's buses.
These tickets are made up in books, inter-leaved with flimsy paper. The conductor writes the particulars on the "flimsy," taking, on the cardboard ticket, a carbon copy, which is torn out and issued to the passenger. Thus, it is difficult for the passenger to altos the carbon copy and the flimsy copy is a record of the conductor's takings. Ticket books can be used on any route and are, of course, serial numbered.
Each time the ticket is used, the proper journey number is clipped out with hand nippers. It is recommended that inside-cut nippers should be used and each day every conductor should be issued with a different design of cutting die. The design on his die should be nipped on his waybill, so that an inspector can ascertain whether all the tickets inspected have been cancelled by the conductor on a particular bus.