Dates, Prices, Overprints and Oddities

Page last modified/checked: Tuesday, 12th August, 2008

This section does not have the level of detail that we would like to show due to the lack of used examples of the various neighbourhood ticket types for the intermediate years. As is the case with many ticket collectors, the initial enthusiasm to obtain anything new is when it is released. Thereafter the diligence to monitor the many subtle changes that might follow is often diminished and this was certainly the case due the monotony of the neighbourhood systyem. Our attention was skewed mostly towards the more obvious additions and changes to the ticket range and only when it was known that the neighbourhoods would be replaced did we once again pursue used examples of all the different ticket types so that we had a representation of their final appearance.

The fiasco with the discounted rail only and travelcard weekly tickets has been detailed elsewhere in this chapter. It is little known that the same marketing approach was also applied to the adult anywhere travelcard when the Neighbourhood system was launched. This ticket was introduced displaying the supposed full price of $5.00. This amount was clearly shown with a slash through it as well as "Discount $4.00" which was the actual introductory fare charged (left). Unlike the weekly tickets where this marketing ploy backfired and they were gradually sold out, the anywhere travelcard was able to be quietly replaced when $4.00 stocks for the next accounting period were received. The earliest example we have showing this is at right.

The early neighbourhood tickets were printed with just a month/months which represented the accounting periods that they were supplied for. Later, the year was included next to the month to prevent re-use of the previous years tickets. We do not know when this occurred but it was certainly in place by October 1985.

With the accounting period commencing 10th November 1985, the price was removed from the face of neighbourhood (left) and travelcard tickets. The Liberal opposition seized on this as another example of the Ministry of Transports incompetence. As a result the price had been reinstated from at least the 27th April 1986 (right) or possibly the accounting period earlier?

Another change which may also have occurred concurrently was the permanent removal of the price from rail only and travelcard weekly tickets which then enabled this stock to remain as a running issue, rather than being replaced at every fare rise. If this change also attracted Oppostion ire, these reasons of economy in ticket printing and supply could be justified.

The fine tuning of information on the front of neighbourhood and travelcard tickets continued to evolve. At some point during 1986 the word "Concession" was printed on the front of these tickets to emphasise that the ticket had been sold at a concession fare and was available for use only to those who were legally entitled to such a fare. Also by this time the fare had been repositioned from the bottom right hand corner to being parallel with the left hand edge. This was more suitable to ticket selling staff, as the travelcard series tickets had been designed to sit vertically in ticket tubes where the price could be partially obscured.
The example shown here is the earliest we have reflecting both of these changes.

The July 1987 fare rise disrupted the pattern of twenty-eight day accounting periods. Fare rises always take effect on a Sunday and the first opportunity to do so within the new financial year was Sunday the 5th July. This date was only two weeks past the end of the previous accounting period and as such, a special print of neighbourhood, off peak saver and travelcard tickets had to be provided covering the two week period. This can clearly be seen with the three ticket samples shown below. This unusual occurrence was a result of an apparent urgency to implement a fare rise at the earliest possible opportunity. The fare guide and travel brochure that was printed in conjunction with this fare rise gives no specific date, merely stating July 1987. This indicates that there may have been some uncertainty as to the exact timing of this fare rise for some months prior, even though it had been announced in the media in late May.

From mid 1987, MTA background security microprinting had begun to appear on the front travelcard weeklies (left) and later, rail-only weeklies (right). This was to be the first of many steps taken to prevent fraud due to the increasing number of colour photocopiers becoming commercially available. Theoretically, the background security print made the alteration of the ink-applied expiry date more difficult.

For the second accounting period in early 1988, a quantity of anywhere concession travelcards were printed on the longer card normally used for the neighbourhood plus one travelcards. It will be seen from the example below that the date boxes were all increased in width by about 1mm and the diagonal band has become slightly altered in angle so that it ran properly across the entire ticket face. The black numerals are of note as is the price which is printed in a distinctly different colour and is bolder than normal.

The conditions on the rear of these tickets were printed towards the left hand edge which is also a characteristic of the neighbourhood plus one travelcards allowing for the punch hole that is applied on the opposite end when issued. In all, this short run of concession travelcards were a subtle but interesting variation. An example of an inner concession travelcard similarly printed on longer card has also been seen, and for comparison scans of the longer and a "normal" length inner travelcard are shown below.

In the final year of the neighbourhood fare system, a number of inner and anywhere weekly travelcards appeared with a noticeably more spartan print face. Some City Loop rail only weeklies were also printed in the same style but no used examples have ever been seen. Note that with both examples below, the background security print has been omitted and the numeral has been applied in blue ink. Does this suggest that these tickets were supplied by a different printer?

Over the summer of 1987-1988 and again during summer 1988-1989 the Inner full fare travelcards included a promotional "Summer in the City" logo. On the first series this logo was printed vertically whilst on the following series it was horizontal. Both ran for three accounting periods and were introduced as close to the start of summer as possible, the final accounting period finished in March in both cases. These tickets were unique in being the ONLY Melbourne public transport ticket to carry any form of logo/advertising on the front prior to the introduction of Metcard many years later.
This promotional was possibly an initiative of the Melbourne City Council?

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