Yelloway and TJOC Burnley Football Service tickets

A little while ago I was rather pleased to be the successful bidder on eBay to buy these three tickets printed for use on an unusual joint service operated by the Todmorden Joint Omnibus Committee (TJOC) and Yelloway Motor Services of Rochdale.

The service, licenced as an ‘Express Carriage Service’, was to cater for fans of Burnley Football Club travelling to home matches from Stacksteads and Bacup.

The operating partnership came about because TJOC was the operator of the regular stage carriage bus route between Bacup and Burnley and Yelloway held excursion licences from Stacksteads and Bacup.

Yelloway agents sold the tickets which were recorded (charted) by the Yelloway Chart Room in Rochdale although vehicles would be provided by either operator. During my time working at Yelloway I recall telephoning the duty inspectors at TJOC to request them provide duplicate vehicles when required.

The reverse side of all three of the tickets have identical printing as shown in the lowest of the examples above.

This style of ticket was widely used by Yelloway on its coastal services and dance hall services. The term ‘block ticket’ was used by the company to differentiate them from ‘excursion tickets’ (a square piece of paper) and multi-part carbon tickets used for single and period return journeys made on regular services.

The ‘block ticket’ comprised two portions, one for the outward journey and one for the return journey. When making a sale the pair were detached from the retaining block which carried the ticket number, the block was then used for accounting purposes. A ticket punch was used to punch out the date of travel.

They are a nice souvenir to have from my days at Yelloway.