Old ticket bury Knowsley Street military pass

[ianmacc]

Hi all. This was in the bottom of a box of model railway items bought from a flea market and thought it may be interesting to the historians on here? It seems to be a third class military pass issued at the long-closed Bury Knowsley Street station. Would love more information in it. 

[Arun Sharma]

Prior to the introduction of the "Military Salary" around 1970, servicemen were paid and taxed at a rate which supposedly took into account that their food and accomodation was effectively free - Basically they were paid at a rate rather lower than a civilian counterpart doing a broadly similar job - say, comparing a REME vehicle mechanic with a civilian equivalent. As a result, there were some compensations e.g., travel concessions such as cheap railway tickets when going on leave and upon presentation of an authorised leave pass. The tickets issued were overprinted "HM Forces Leave" and similar.  The military salary was a major upheaval in the payment system as from around 1970, servicemen were now paid a salary which not only bore some relationship to what civilians might have received but also exceeded it by an "X" factor [usually 7-10%]. The X factor ostensibly rewarded the serviceman for working unnatural hours and potentially risking his life though operational allowances and extra pay for service say, in Northern Ireland were introduced around the same time.

It wasn't until 1982 that Forces Railcards came in and they were a sort of "thank you" from the state for the Falklands War service.

Thus after the introduction of the military salary, it was no longer felt necessary to have discounted leave tickets though "free" duty tickets issued in exchange for a military-issued travel warrant were still available and annotated that they were issued on a warrant so couldn't be returned for cash!

Edited December 29, 2019 by Arun Sharma
error

[bécasse]

The LNER called their equivalent tickets "furlough". 

By the time of the mass stations closures of the early 1960s, these forces' leave tickets were often the only tickets remaining at stations which still bore the pre-nationalisation company's initials and many booking clerks were prepared to sell them to enthusiasts knowing that they were for personal collections and wouldn't be used for travel. Thus many more examples have survived than might otherwise be the case.

[Steamport Southport]

Wasn't there a barracks in Bury right by the station?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Barracks,_Bury

 

 

 

Jason

[ianmacc]

On 29/12/2019 at 22:59, bécasse said:

The LNER called their equivalent tickets "furlough". 

By the time of the mass stations closures of the early 1960s, these forces' leave tickets were often the only tickets remaining at stations which still bore the pre-nationalisation company's initials and many booking clerks were prepared to sell them to enthusiasts knowing that they were for personal collections and wouldn't be used for travel. Thus many more examples have survived than might otherwise be the case.

Might explain why it’s an unmarked specimen with no journey details. 

[bécasse]

46 minutes ago, ianmacc said:

Might explain why it’s an unmarked specimen with no journey details. 

It probably does because unissued tickets returned to audit after station or booking office closures (or withdrawal of the ticket type) were always cancelled using V-shaped nippers, twice for tickets like this with outward and return halves. Most "blank" tickets sold to enthusiasts were made out to the next station (which was the fare they sold them for) but I have known the odd clerk who didn't bother even though it put his job at risk.