10 million travel tokens for North-West now being minted
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• British Railways have agreed to a request from Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive that the metal tokens for use in the concessionary fare paying scheme to be introduced in the North-West on April 1 should be accepted on trains in the area as well as on buses. SELNEC PTA also told CM this week that it has made a similar request to BR in respect of the Manchester area and this is now under consideration in London.
The huge token scheme, which was first reported in CM last week, means the initial minting of 12 million token pieces-10 million 3p and 2 million 2p tokens—is assured a successful introduction even before T-day. Plans have already been made to order more tokens—the first one of which was presented this week to CM. It is envisaged that as many as 50m will be in use within the three-year period of trial operation.
Striking the tokens is the oldest private mint in the country, appropriately called The Mint (Birmingham) Ltd. The company has struck coins and tokens for bus and other travel systems for countries all over the world.
A high-ranking official from the consortium which, as well as North Western Road Car, Ribble, Crosville, LUT, MPTE and SELNEC, includes an impressive number of municipal bus authorities gathered together in the Mid-Lancashire Transport Co-Ordinating Committee, is visiting the Birmingham Mint next week to watch the first tokens coming from the dies which have just been completed. The whole order will be ready for shipment in eight weeks, well ahead of T-day.
Discussions are already taking place with other operators, including Cumberland Motor Services and Potteries Motor Traction, and there is expectation that the scheme will soon be extended to cover all transport operators in the North-West region and in a large area of Wales. The administrative costs of setting up and running the North Western Public Transport Token Organization by the consortium will not mean extra financial burdens adding to the already difficult fares situation. It is estimated that the interest gainea on cash payments from authorities for the tokens while they are in circulation will adequately cover this aspect of the operation.
The tokens are quite handsome in appearance, with milled edges. They are manufactured in high-quality aluminium and will be light to carry.