A new ticket for a new service : Guildford - Reading : publicity leaflet : British Railways, Southern Region : [December 1964]

Sections of the North Downs Line, the railway that runs from Reading to Redhill via Guildford, were proposed for closure under the 'Beeching Axe' in 1963 but the line survived albeit with service changes. One was the introduction of diesel-electric multiple units in the form of Southern Region's Class 206 units that were introduced from 4 January 1965 and this leaflet is to publicise the "new look service of fast diesel-electric trains taking only 49 minutes". The 'new' cheap day Second Class off-peak return was 5/- (five shillings or 25p) and there was quite the warning that "this facility is experimental" and that "Continuance Depends on Your Support!". Good to see that they were trying to positively market their way out of the threat of closure.

 

The only other oddity is that although the leaflet uses a generic British Railways Southern Region layout it also appears to make use of the new British Rail symbol that was to come into use later in 1965; albeit it in a most unorthodox form. Not sure what HQ would have thought of that! This is if the printcode 81264 can be correctly read as 8 December 1964. There is also mention of the terminus at Reading Southern; this was closed in September 1965 when track connections allowed use of the town's main station Reading (General).

Done