The price of a ticket to Ormskirk- 1855/6

I recently acquired 3 old Railway Magazine editions from 1959 because the February to April editions have a ‘Railway Development in Liverpool’ article (by MD Greville & GO Holt) split over the 3 months. The article certainly is in depth and something you’ll not see in modern railway magazines; it runs in total to 25 pages and is well illustrated – all black and white photos of course.

 

The reason I raise this is that in the February edition there’s this interesting piece :-

‘The opening on Sept 4^th 1855 of the LYR* Manchester and Southport line (of which the ELR** was joint owner between Burscough and Southport) precipitated yet another rate war, in the course of which the fare between Liverpool and Southport gradually dropped to 6d. single and 9d, return. It was not until March 1856, that sanity was restored, and the fares were fixed at 1s 6d, single and 2s 6d. return. 

Arising out of this there was an interesting case in the Liverpool County Court – ELR v James Bowes. Mr Bowes bought for 6d., a third class ticket from Liverpool to Southport and alighted at Ormskirk***, to which place the fare was 1s 6d. The Court decided in favour of the railway, stating that it had the right to charge as little as it liked for longer distances, and that there was no restriction of the liberty of Mr. Bowes in that he could alight where he pleased on payment of the difference due.’

* Lancashire Yorkshire Railway 

** East Lancashire Railway

*** Clearly the train used the Burscough Curves, specifically the south curve.

So it's clear that ralway ticketing could be as confusing back then as it still is now!

This blog piece was also published in Connexion the newsletter of OPSTA - Ormskirk Preston & Southport Travellers Association - July 2023 edition.