The Edmondson ticket

These card tickets, which bring back memories of our first train journeys, are actually called “Edmondson” tickets. But who was Edmondson? Thomas Edmondson was station manager on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway in England and through his invention, sought to replace the former handwritten notes. These small cardboard rectangles were numbered to facilitate issue, control and distribution. This system was so successful that it came to be adopted by virtually all railways all over in the world, as well as by other modes of transport, from boats to road transport. In Portugal, it was used until the end of the 20th century, being gradually removed from the national network. As an individual passenger ticket, it contains various journey information details. On these small cards, it is possible to observe the company's logo, the type of ticket, stations of origin and destination, journey class, price and ticket number. The travel date was added by the ticket agent.