London & Greenwich Railway 3rd class season ticket

London & Greenwich Railway 3rd class season ticket, 19th January to 19th April, 1837.

This early railway ticket, one of the first series of season tickets ever issued, pre-dates the mass production of pre-printed tickets. It is similar to the stage coach ticket, where tickets were written by hand. Waiting for someone to write out your ticket was slow and did not suit the faster paced, busy and expanding railway network.

Inventor, and one-time stationmaster Thomas Edmondson, fundamentally improved the ticket-buying system by devising numbered, small rectangular cardboard tickets that were pocket-sized and could be changed in colour and markings to reflect ticket types and prevent fare dodging - a big problem at the time. Edmondson also invented the ticket printing machine that enabled bulk pre-printing of these cardboard tickets. These machines were so successful that by 1842 their use was widespread. The pre-printed Edmondson tickets would be stored in racking in ticket offices. This sped up the ticket buying process for passengers.