Edmonson tickets a lost "cause" for ever?

Both spellings are given

 

I am not avoiding anything, only observing that a properly set up EPOS system is quick and straightforward. Whether you choose to give away anything else is purely your business.

PH

 

It's an aphorism in the computer/etc world that anything with more capability is necessarily more complicated. And more complicated inevitably entails more chances to get it wrong. TANSTAAFL: to get the additional capabilities of an EPOS system, something has to give elsewhere.

Noel

 

I suppose the computer world, like any other, has its reactionaries.

PH

 

It also has its advocates of new tech at any cost, regardless of value. There are many ways to skin a cat; fancy new tech isn’t always the right answer. And on ticketing, it’s becoming harder and harder to see the value in investing in change.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yes, just like all those reactionary physicists who insist that nothing made of matter can travel faster than light (q.v. that recent erroneous super-luminal neutrino report).

You don't seem to comprehend that something with more capabilities is necessarily more complex. It's quite fundamental.

(Apologies, all, for the semi-off-topic; but that reply was so snarky and condescending I couldn't just let it go. I'll try harder next time.)

Noel

 

Which was its intention.

PH

 

Just reading in the WSR Journal that some folks turning up with online tickets have been disappointed to find those things are their tickets and cannot be exchanged at a booking office for card tickets...

Steve

 

From the person who cries "foul" the moment anyone gets sarky with him.

 

All i'm going to say is this, If I was to turn up at Havenstreet, Wooton, or Smallbrook , go to the booking office at either of these stations (assuming one can purchase tickets at either end station ) and I was given an EPOS receipt as my ticket I would view it as an retrograde step, as it would in one swift action undo , in my eyes all the hard work done in providing the Southern/ Edwardian station impression as you enter either station, the only time I might accept it is if I had purchased an all island rover from SWR, as I would not expect an heritage type ticket , but saying that, I see no reason why the booking clerk could not give a complimentary ticket at Smallbrook and make a suitable entry in the register , to me its all part of the experience, if you visit an heritage railway you expect I would think to be transported back to a past time scene.

 

As @martin1656 , when it comes to locos and carriages, there is a limit to what lines can do to promote authenticity, caused in the first instance by what stock they actually have. It is often the owners/restorers of older stock who don't want them to be in everyday use, or those elements of a line's management who see 'heritage' as an optional extra for which a premium should be charged!

What seems to be happening increasingly with ticketing is that an aspect of 'the past' which lines already have, some are choosing to replace (probably at considerable cost) for dubious benefits ('it gives more information' - 'what do you do with this?' - 'Err, well, it's up to date - so it must be better'!!!). Where a charity is involved, ticketing with Edmondsons is a straightforward way of presenting an aspect of 'the past' that people will notice and readily be 'educated' on without it being too obviously 'a lesson'.

Where do you draw the line? Semaphore signalling? Labour intensive, tricky to maintain - why not do a Torbay and have one small cabin control the whole lot with colour light signals and point motors. Staff in traditional uniforms? Baseball caps and T/Sweat shirts are cheaper. Restored waiting rooms? They'd make more as a shop or tea room. Staffed stations? Rostering is always hard, unstaffed halts would remove that hassle.

Oh, and Paul - I presume you have been to the Tanfield? Lovely line and full of character but their restorations of vintage carriages, while very in keeping with what I believe was always a colliery and never a passenger line, are not 'totally authentic' but 'operationally capable'. Nothing wrong with that, and a considerable achievement but not what you seem to think it is.

Steven

 

Trolli9ng Paul? Surely not!

Steven

 

Sadly Steven I have not. I have been to Foxfield though which has similar antecedents and which also puts many places to shame when it comes to rescuing pre-Grouping passenger stock.

Regards

Paul

 

Given that on-line ticketing can mean transmitting an image to a mobile device.............

Has any Ticket Inspector punched a hole through an iPhone yet?

 

As we sit here, pondering that I dare say someone is looking up some formula to do just that involving concentrated light and various acids , or some app that writes " checked" over the image .

 

Have you heard the story about the waterproof app?

 

An EPOS issue ticket, as far as I have seen, contains quite a bit of information besides date, destination and serial number. For instance the number of passengers - including status - date and time issued, method of payment and maybe more.
If one of these tickets became lost, say for passenger(s) spending time in a local town, having a meal etc, I assume it would not be too difficult to confirm their purchase especially with a card type payment.
I cannot see that an Edmonson could equal that, unless the ticket clerk wrote down a lot of detail when issuing it.

 

TOCs will not accept a card receipt as evidence of payment if a ticket is lost and cannot be produced for inspection. In the apparent "commercial" climate of heritage railways, why on earth would they do so either?

 

Quite so, but in the less formal world of heritage railways, I imagine it would be up to the Ticket Inspector to decide whether to believe a lost ticket story, or not.

 

I am sure most Ticket inspectors have a good deal of discretion for decision making on heritage lines. Not only that, they may even remember the passengers.