How can one go about comparing costs of travel from Putney to Bank in the early 1960s?

[infobleep]

Recently I was told that in the 1960s my mum, who, lived in Putney and worked in the city, use to get a bus to a district line station and then the tube to Monument.

Some year's later my dad, not yet married to my mum, heard about this said there was a simpler route which was Putney to London Waterloo and then the drain to Bank [aka Waterloo and City line].

This got me wondering. What would have been cheaper bus and tube or the train?

Are there any online resources where I can look this up myself or is it simply fhs case if needing to own some fares manuals?

 

[30907]

BR fares in those days were mileage based, and so were LT fares.

Through season tickets to Bank (and to tube stations generally) were issued from SR stations, and AFAIK tube-only seasons were issued by LT.

I'm fairly sure there was no bus equivalent of a season, but may be wrong, which would probably have made bus+tube more expensive. You would need to know the route she took though.

Someone may well have a "London SR" season tickets rates booklet in their archive, it wasn't a big volume.

 

[Roger1973]

I can't come up with numbers, but -

I have a 1961 LT 'Underground Guide' which does say that weekly and longer period season tickets were available, but there's no detail on prices.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the current zone based system did not come in until the early 1980s, so season tickets would have been issued and priced on a station to station basis (or possibly to a group of stations)

I agree, I am fairly sure that there were no LT central bus season tickets (other than the 'red rover' day / weekend ticket which was introduced some time in the 60s) - I have an idea that a bus 'add on' to rail season tickets became available in the 1980s, a short time before the travelcard / capitalcard options replaced them.

Again, Southern region season tickets were on station to station basis, although were (certainly by the 70s) valid to 'London SR' rather than a specific London station. At the suburban end, some were valid to multiple stations - my late father's season tickets were issued from 'Lee or Kidbrooke' (I'm not sure whether this was for passenger convenience, or to reduce the number of types that had to be printed.)

Although I have a feeling that a ticket to Bank via the Waterloo and City line may have been a higher price than to a regular SR terminus. I'm not sure, as the question didn't really come up from a SE London area where there were trains to Cannon Street and Holborn Viaduct.

I think that a 'London SR' ticket from a SW London station would have allowed a passenger to cross from Waterloo to Waterloo East and continue to Charing Cross, London Bridge or Cannon Street. (There were at one time peak hour trains that shuttled Charing Cross - Cannon Street via the west side of the triangle, but I'm not sure when these finished.)

 

[Bevan Price]

I seem to recall that BR single fares increased from 2d per mile to 3d per mile in stages over about 2 years in the early 1960s.

 

[infobleep]

Thanks for the replies.

 

[SargeNpton]

BR fares in those days were mileage based, and so were LT fares.

Through season tickets to Bank (and to tube stations generally) were issued from SR stations, and AFAIK tube-only seasons were issued by LT.

I'm fairly sure there was no bus equivalent of a season, but may be wrong, which would probably have made bus+tube more expensive. You would need to know the route she took though.

Someone may well have a "London SR" season tickets rates booklet in their archive, it wasn't a big volume.

But Putney to Bank via Waterloo would have been a solely BR journey at the time - using the Waterloo & City Line.

 

[30907]

But Putney to Bank via Waterloo would have been a solely BR journey at the time - using the Waterloo & City Line.

Yes, but they were priced at an add-on to the Waterloo/London SR fare, it didn't count as "London SR" for understandable reasons.
AFAIK they were not valid via LT routes even when the Drain was shut - TBH I can't imagine anyone wanting to travel from SR stations to the Bank area by tube, except perhaps via Blackfriars or Elephant.

 

[SargeNpton]

Yes, but they were priced at an add-on to the Waterloo/London SR fare, it didn't count as "London SR" for understandable reasons.
AFAIK they were not valid via LT routes even when the Drain was shut - TBH I can't imagine anyone wanting to travel from SR stations to the Bank area by tube, except perhaps via Blackfriars or Elephant.

If you are coming into Waterloo from any station in the South Western division (including Putney) to get to Bank, then the Waterloo & City was the most straight forward route. So, it would be priced entirely by BR. I wasn't saying that it would be the same price as to Waterloo, merely that LT would not be involved in setting the fare.

Central and South Eastern division routes were an entirely different matter, requiring an LT priced tube add-on.

 

[randyrippley]

back in the 1960s I thought the W&C was a free extension for anyone arriving at Waterloo

I can remember doing it several times, straight off the arrival platform to the W&C, only ticket check was on exit at Bank

 

[30907]

Central and South Eastern division routes were an entirely different matter, requiring an LT priced tube add-on.

Interesting - I didn't know that, probably because I was never asked the price from a CD station. In theory a route would have been available via Clapham Jn, but I can't think of anywhere where it would have been faster than London Br and walk! (Wandsworth Common?)

back in the 1960s I thought the W&C was a free extension for anyone arriving at Waterloo

But it wasn't (at least officially)

 

[Route115?]

I seem to remember than in the late 70s London Transport 'Go as you please' tickets also included validity on the Waterloo & City and GN from Moorgate - Finsbury Park. I suspect that the same was true for the London traveller which grew into the travelcard I think after the Fares Fare debacle. In the early 80s the Capitalcard was the Travelcard + British Rail and cost more before the two were combined into a travelcard which included B.R. I'm afraid that I can't remember the exact dates of all of this.

 

[infobleep]

I seem to remember than in the late 70s London Transport 'Go as you please' tickets also included validity on the Waterloo & City and GN from Moorgate - Finsbury Park. I suspect that the same was true for the London traveller which grew into the travelcard I think after the Fares Fare debacle.

I just looked that up. Very interesting. Surpired at how easily I found it given the title fares fair.

Fares Fair was a public policy advocated by the Labour Party administration of the Greater London Council (GLC), then led by Ken Livingstone. The policy of low public transport fares was implemented in 1981, but was later ruled to be illegal in the courts and rescinded the following year.

Fares Fair - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org