Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str1916

View of the new LMS Enquiry Office opened in 1930 and located in one of the original entrance archways in Stephenson Place on 16th January 1930. This was a further attempt by the LMS to provide passengers using New Street station with more and better information. Behind the clerk are racks of the Edmondson card tickets once prevalent across all railway companies. Invented by Thomas Edmondson of Lancaster, these tickets had their origins from the very early days of railways and were still being issued for some routes as late as the 1980s. The Edmondson card ticket was pre-printed, needing only to be validated by a date stamp. Each ticket would have printed on them a variety of information commencing with their route - the departure and destination stations, class of ticket - First or Third Class, Journey - Single or Return, Fare, Ticket Number and Day of the Week.

As each ticket was numbered, both to aid the accountants to calculate revenue and combat fraud, they needed to stored in racks to ensure that they were issued sequentially. As there were numerous variants for each route, Single or Return, Adult or Child, First or Third Class, Cheap Day or Standard Fare, one route could require several racks for the tickets. To combat fraud railway companies would employ ticket inspectors on the gates of closed stations (stations that were secure). In the case of open stations, such as New Street where no collections could be made because of the right of way footbridge crossing the station, trains were stopped for ticket inspection at a station outside such as Adderley Park which extended the journey time.

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