British Rail appointed travel agents

[61653 HTAFC]

I have a vague childhood memory of going with my mum to a travel agents (Travelworld on Cross Church Street in Huddersfield) to book tickets for my dad, my older brother and me on the Football Special from Huddersfield to Wembley Central- for the FA Vase final 1988*. The tickets were like the regular ones, but with dark blue or purple (memory is a bit foggy) in place of the orange.

*- Emley v. Colne Dynamoes. The game finished 0-1 to Colne after extra time.

 

[L401CJF]

Not quite answering the questions, but there is a Travel agents (still open) in Higher Bebington, Wirral, which has a back-lit Intercity swallow logo sign hanging down in the window and a sticker on the glass which says "Your local Intercity agent" or something along those lines complete with swallow logo!

 

[Norton Bridge]

Back in the 80s there was a BR Travel Centre (I think that's what it was called) opposite Reading station. If I remember correctly the offices above were used by BR. I remember them selling me an incorrect ticket to the Isle of Wight which wasn't valid on the ferry. Others who got tickets from the Students' Union at the University got the correct ones. I also think I bought an Inter rail ticket at the Travel Centre, but we did all our reservations at the SU - with some trepidation, but everything worked and they were clearly better at doing this than we feared.

 

[davetheguard]

Going on a slight tangent, I remember the days of sportis and the fare manual, not fun when someone wanted a St Ives to Chester Road Saver Return when you had 3 minutes between stops!

The first ticket I ever sold on SPORTIS (actually the earlier version PORTIS) while working the Bedwyn to Reading paytrain was a Saver Return from Bedwyn to Lancaster. Luckily, I had a bit longer than three minutes between stations, but I did have the disadvantage of the train being formed of the prototype class 210 set rather than the usual 117 DMU; so doors had to be released as well!

Back in the 80s there was a BR Travel Centre (I think that's what it was called) opposite Reading station.

There were a lot of these around at the time on bigger stations; they were a good place to go for travel in advance or if you had a complex enquiry - without holding up people who needed a quick ticket and whose train was due shortly. They were often more relaxed in layout than a traditional ticket office with seats for customers and an open plan office feel, without the glass security barrier between customer & staff. Run by B.R. so not the same as independent travel agents' shops.

The one at Reading was in the main station building fronting the forecourt, just to the left of where the pub is now. Other travel centres in the area were at Didcot Parkway & Oxford stations: the one at Didcot later became a convenience shop; the one at Oxford was lost when the station was rebuilt in the '90s?

Returning to independent travel agents, there was one in Henley on Thames called, I think, Gangplank Travel who sold quite a few B.R. tickets; the station ticket office at Henley was only open during the morning peak at the time, after that time those without tickets bought their tickets from the guard on the train.

 

[lyndhurst25]

Not quite answering the questions, but there is a Travel agents (still open) in Higher Bebington, Wirral, which has a back-lit Intercity swallow logo sign hanging down in the window and a sticker on the glass which says "Your local Intercity agent" or something along those lines complete with swallow logo!

And, according to pictures on google, had at some point a “National Rail” sticker on the door and inside the shop a replica totem sign saying “Book your British Railways tickets here at station prices”. So maybe these travel agents do still exist? I think that the last one that I saw in the flesh was a shop with an InterCity swallow sign in Filey, maybe 20 years ago.

 

[Titfield]

With the boom in foreign travel from the early 80s onwards (its debatable when the boom started) a new type of travel agent appeared on the high street: holiday shops eg Lunn Poly. These agents typically only sold package holidays and flights and didnt sell the full range of products for example coach and rail tickets which a traditional travel agent would sell.

With the rise of "tinternet" and clients booking direct, sadly many travel agencies have ceased trading.

 

[D6130]

With the rise of "tinternet" and clients booking direct, sadly many travel agencies have ceased trading.

There's still an active chain of travel agents in North and West Yorkshire called Althams. They have a branch near me in Todmorden and another in Skipton, but I'm not sure whether they still sell rail tickets.

 

[Ken H]

There's still an active chain of travel agents in North and West Yorkshire called Althams. They have a branch near me in Todmorden and another in Skipton, but I'm not sure whether they still sell rail tickets.

nice history of the company on althams.co.uk. Used to be tea merchants!. No sign of rail tickets, website just seems to be packages.

 

[Alfonso]

I once used a rail appointed travel agents in Canterbury to buy two child day returns from wherever NSE stopped (pinhoe? Whimple?) To Exeter st David's. Handwritten tickets from a sort of triplicate book. Used with a network south east go anywhere for a fiver or tenner or whatever it was day allowed us to take the Brighton to Exeter train which was diverted via Westbury. Best 80p I've ever spent.

 

[paddy1]

Frames Travel Agent (long since gone) based at Gosford Green in Coventry were a BR appointed travel agent. They had the distinctive iconic BR station sign at the front of their premises. I recall they may have had other branches in the city. They sold pre-printed tickets (small rectangular card, raffle ticket sized) for the more popular destinations from Coventry, date stamping as appropriate, and issued carbonated handwritten ones for other destinations, consulting the various fare manuals in order to construct the through fare. They also sold through tickets to stations in the Republic or Ireland as well as for journeys on or involving Sealink Ferries, making sailing ticket reservations etc on the spot via the phone as necessary. Depending on where you lived in Coventry, it was often more convenient to buy your tickets there rather than Coventry Station if not travelling same day.

 

[52290]

I used Frames Travel in Preston in the 1970's . I booked rail tickets from London to Chomutov in Czechoslovakia in 1970. Each bit of the journey had a separate ticket for each country plus the boat from Dover to Ostend. All nicely stapled together in a little booklet. For the return I booked back from somewhere in Southern Germany. For the in-between bits I bought tickets locally at the stations. Frames got used to me buying tickets to odd spots

 

[paddy1]

I used Frames Travel in Preston in the 1970's . I booked rail tickets from London to Chomutov in Czechoslovakia in 1970. Each bit of the journey had a separate ticket for each country plus the boat from Dover to Ostend. All nicely stapled together in a little booklet. For the return I booked back from somewhere in Southern Germany. For the in-between bits I bought tickets locally at the stations. Frames got used to me buying tickets to odd spots

I'm sure I passed through Chomutov a few years ago on a train trip from Prague to Karlovy Vary. Didn't realise that Frames were a national chain back in the 19070's. Can't envisage there would be that many agents nowadays who would be able to book through rail and sea travel to regional towns and cities in Europe, other than the few specialist ones in London.

 

[52290]

I'm sure I passed through Chomutov a few years ago on a train trip from Prague to Karlovy Vary. Didn't realise that Frames were a national chain back in the 19070's. Can't envisage there would be that many agents nowadays who would be able to book through rail and sea travel to regional towns and cities in Europe, other than the few specialist ones in London.

Frames used a big book showing distances to the border points so they could allocate the exact portion of the fare to each national railway company. Maybe this still goes on in some form today.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

By the late '70s continental ticketing was much simplified, with just a single ticket to your destination and including seat reservations, couchettes etc. The continental fares manual had a section for each country with various through fares by various routes to the border station(s). So for Germany it was Bentheim, Emmerich, Venlo etc via Harwich / Hook or Dover / Ostend etc. There was then an add-on for the station that you required in that country, usually grouped by zones, to arrive at the total. Somewhere in my collection I have a through ticket Wilmslow to Copenhagen - booked locally - I wouldn't get very far asking for that today. Some non-railway ferry companies were included in the scheme - so you could get a through ticket say Manchester to Stockholm (via Newcastle / Gothenburg) or Oslo ( via Newcastle / Bergen).

 

[Taunton]

There were BR run travel centres in London at Victoria Street, The Strand, King William Street and Lower Regent Street.

Notably, these are all in close proximity to the handful of onetime British Airways ticket offices in Central London. Although no obvious direct connection, it seems a bit too much of a coincidence. Someone must have done the analysis of where to place them for one, and the other followed.

 

[Gloster]

Wasn’t Cockspur Street off Trafalgar Square a bit of a centre for rail ticket agencies? Or is my mind playing tricks.

 

[XAM2175]

Frames used a big book showing distances to the border points so they could allocate the exact portion of the fare to each national railway company. Maybe this still goes on in some form today.

Oh yes indeed, though obviously within the journey planner and you won't usually see the finished construction. I did however have DB tickets for a Berlin - København - Hamburg trip recently where the portion of the fare for travel within Germany was shown separately, as that portion attracted VAT but the international portion didn't.

Somewhere in my collection I have a through ticket Wilmslow to Copenhagen - booked locally - I wouldn't get very far asking for that today.

Having just tried it out of curiosity, DB's website will accept Wilmslow as an originating station and produce an itinerary (Avanti to Euston, then Eurostar, then so on), but it says you need to phone them to get a fare and making the booking. I do agree though that you probably wouldn't have much success asking at the booking office nowadays, at either end

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Wasn’t Cockspur Street off Trafalgar Square a bit of a centre for rail ticket agencies? Or is my mind playing tricks.

Not sure about rail ticket agencies - may well have been, but more than one nation had a tourist information centre there who could probably provide tickets.

 

[King Lazy]

There was one in Millom in the 80s/90s. It was the local coach company Hodgsons. They had a shop on Crown Street opposite the end of Wellington Street. As I remember it had the double arrow branding on the shop sign as well.

I used it once for an advance purchase but can’t remember where to. As I remember the ticket was hand-written and quite large and they used the big fares manual. I half expected the guard to question me but they just looked and moved on. They probably saw hundreds of them but to me it looked totally different to any ticket I’d ever used.

I know some people who would use it just to buy a day return to Barrow for less than £5. Maybe they had loyalty to the shop or found it easier.

Now we just use our phones.

On a digression...Personally as I get older I become increasingly nostalgic. We had no choice but to speak to a person, be it the guard or booking office. Now many things in life are a solitary experience for the sake of convenience. Yet I don’t feel life has actually got easier, just different.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Not sure about rail ticket agencies - may well have been, but more than one nation had a tourist information centre there who could probably provide tickets.

Yes indeed, I got rail passes for West Germany from DER Travel more than once.
More recently, I was able to get an annual Renfe Tarjeta Dorada card (senior railcard, 40% off) from the Spanish tourist office in London - until it closed.
Now you can only get it in-country, which mucks up advance bookings (you need to quote the railcard number to get the discount).

On the other hand, all European operators are now instantly available on the internet or their phone app, together with their cheap fare offers, e-tickets and plastic payment options, plus live data on how trains are running.
It's now much easier to plan and book travel across Europe, though the European Rail Timetable is still a vital ingredient for a top-level view.

 

[Ken H]

There was one in Millom in the 80s/90s. It was the local coach company Hodgsons. They had a shop on Crown Street opposite the end of Wellington Street. As I remember it had the double arrow branding on the shop sign as well.

I used it once for an advance purchase but can’t remember where to. As I remember the ticket was hand-written and quite large and they used the big fares manual. I half expected the guard to question me but they just looked and moved on. They probably saw hundreds of them but to me it looked totally different to any ticket I’d ever used.

I know some people who would use it just to buy a day return to Barrow for less than £5. Maybe they had loyalty to the shop or found it easier.

Now we just use our phones.

On a digression...Personally as I get older I become increasingly nostalgic. We had no choice but to speak to a person, be it the guard or booking office. Now many things in life are a solitary experience for the sake of convenience. Yet I don’t feel life has actually got easier, just different.

I use the ticket office when I can. Makes life more interesting.

 

[Taunton]

On the other hand, all European operators are now instantly available on the internet or their phone app, together with their cheap fare offers, e-tickets and plastic payment options, plus live data on how trains are running.
It's now much easier to plan and book travel across Europe, though the European Rail Timetable is still a vital ingredient for a top-level view.

I disagree actually. It took me just a couple of minutes to flick through the Cooks for trains from London Victoria to Interlaken, and then 30 seconds at the Victoria booking office on the day of departure to ask for a return.

Nowadays, likewise starting from scratch, you would be lucky to do all this on your laptop in less than an hour.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

and then 30 seconds at the Victoria booking office on the day of departure to ask for a return.

Wow, you were lucky, sometimes the queues were quite lengthy, but going there with your itinerary planned from your Cooks timetable was very straightforward. They also did tickets and reservations by post.

 

[181]

Got my 1st Continental Thomas Cook Timetable probably in 1990 or '91 from a Thomas Cook branch. On asking for it the lass at the desk (focussed on selling package holidays as 90% of her job I'm sure) looked blank when I asked for it, but consulted a colleague who thought she had seen 'something that might be one of those' out the back, which was duly located and happily sold to me. It clearly did not warrant shelf space front of house with the holiday brochures (but to be fair they would have been give aways and the timetable was not free).

Branches of Thomas Cooks were the big rail agents of the time.

Can I ask out of interest what sort of era/dates would that have been?

1982 - 1989.

Thomas Cook had stopped doing rail bookings by 1990, or at least some branches had. In the early months of that year I wanted to make some bookings for travel on VIA Rail in Canada. At the time VIA Rail (and I think possibly Amtrak) were represented in London by an outfit (Compass Travel?) with an office near Victoria station from where you could get brochures and timetables, but to make bookings you had to go to a travel agent who would contact Compass Travel on your behalf. I asked Thomas Cook in Kingston-upon-Thames about this, and was met with the immediate response 'we don't do trains'. (I can't remember the details of how this was resolved, but they were eventually persuaded to contact Compass Travel as requested).

 

[frodshamfella]

I became a travel consultant in a local travel agent to where I lived at the time in 1983. We were BR agents and could issue tickets nationwide and also through tickets via Sealink ferries to the Channel Islands and to destination in Northern Ireland and the Republic. We could make seat , sleeper and motorail reservations. We also had continent rail tickets, so we could issue tickets from the UK to anywhere in continental Europe , but not within Continent Europe. All tickets were paper and hand written, reservations were.of course made by phone, I recall there were phones numbers we used for Euston, Kings X , Paddington and so on. For continental rail ,I remember we had two numbers for reservations, one called ' the French computer ' the other ' The German computer ' . All seems quite quaint in this Internet age, but you had to understand Geography better and where cities and towns were to put a journey together, which meant using timetables and maps. I loved the job and found it very interesting .

As my career progressed I moved in Business Travel more, my last job was with American Express Travel, we issues a lot of rail tickets and had the same sort of ticket machine that a regular station had.

 

[alistairlees]

Here’s a few tickets issued by travel agents in Otley, Leeds and Huddersfield.

 

[Pigeon]

...to anywhere in continental Europe , but not within Continent Europe.

Uh? How is that not self-contradictory?

 

[alistairlees]

Uh? How is that not self-contradictory?

I expect he means "not wholly within continental Europe"; the origin had to be in the UK.

 

[Ken H]

Here’s a few tickets issued by travel agents in Otley, Leeds and Huddersfield.

Thanks for that. Nice historical documents.

 

[kermit]

Frames Travel Agent (long since gone) ........ issued carbonated handwritten ones for other destinations, consulting the various fare manuals in order to construct the through fare.

Although I'm sure everyone knew what you meant, I reckon the word should be "carbonised". Carbonated would be a fizzy ticket!