Red Rover Tickets...

[OldandRambling]

Talking over "the good old days" with a chum, we started reminiscing about the all day London transport "Rover" passes.
The Bus pass was a "Red Rover", but neither of us can recall what the tube pass was called? I have a vague impression it was called a "Gold Rover", but I am 75% sure that is not correct. Any other regular schoolboy tube riding truants from the 1960 have any thoughts?

 

[Dstock7080]

Twin Rovers, complimented Red Bus Rovers:

Rover Tickets

This is both an Underground and Bus question. Can anybody throw any light on the various types of Rover Tickets that were available on LT services during the 1960s EG Red Rovers, Green Rovers, Twin Rovers and Gold/Golden? Rovers. I am particularly interested in the availability of these various...

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[OldandRambling]

Ahh, Twin Rovers... Thanks!

 

[2192]

Red Rovers were weekend only and you could only get them from LT stations, I think, as I got mine from South Wimbledon. As school was also Saturdays, I had to wait until half term, then I went from Kingston to Upminster to see low bridge double deckers and then out to the NE and NW corners of the red bus area. After 30 buses I'd had enough, and came home. Twin Rovers were introduced a couple of years later, and I got one and did most of the Underground system, and came home when I was fed up with seeing Cat on a hot tin roof film posters!

 

[bakerstreet]

My ticket of choice back in the day was the London explorer. You could buy it from travel information centres and possibly tube stations too. It had some limitations in that you could use it on bus and tube (not BR) you not use it beyond (north of) Queens Park or (east of) Loughton or on Airbus. Except if you purchased at Heathrow where for the same price Airbus was thrown in too. I can’t remember the cost and I don’t remember there being time restrictions or zones - just London but at child rate it seemed very good value (ie I could afford it out of pocket money).
image below from google search.

 

[swt_passenger]

My brother and I spent the whole day touring the underground on Red Rover tickets, and the only barrier staff to notice were at Morden when we were leaving at the end of the day. I got away with it by putting on my best Geordie accent and explaining we were on holiday…

 

[steamybrian]

Red Rovers were weekend only and you could only get them from LT stations, I think, as I got mine from South Wimbledon. As school was also Saturdays, I had to wait until half term, then I went from Kingston to Upminster to see low bridge double deckers and then out to the NE and NW corners of the red bus area. After 30 buses I'd had enough, and came home. Twin Rovers were introduced a couple of years later, and I got one and did most of the Underground system, and came home when I was fed up with seeing Cat on a hot tin roof film posters!

I enclose two LT red rover tickets from my collection which I used. I cannot remember where I bought them but I did not buy them from an underground station as at the time I lived in Croydon some distance from the nearest underground station. You will note they were also valid after 0930 on Mondays to Fridays.

 

[RT4038]

I enclose two LT red rover tickets from my collection which I used. I cannot remember where I bought them but I did not buy them from an underground station as at the time I lived in Croydon some distance from the nearest underground station. You will note they were also valid after 0930 on Mondays to Fridays.

Bus Garages sold them, also agents of London Coastal Coaches Ltd [Victoria Coach Station].

 

[PeterC]

I enclose two LT red rover tickets from my collection which I used. I cannot remember where I bought them but I did not buy them from an underground station as at the time I lived in Croydon some distance from the nearest underground station. You will note they were also valid after 0930 on Mondays to Fridays.

Mondays to Fridays when advertised. I have several bus maps from 66 and 67 and the adverts for rover tickets there are quite clear about validity being weekends only. However from other sources I have since learned that they were also issued for use on weekdays in August. As the bus map was an essential piece of kit for bus spotters it is likely that most from my generation will have taken the statement there as definitive.

I didn't keep up with what was available after 66 as I started finding girls more interesting than bus spotting.

The ticket offeri

 

[Busaholic]

Mondays to Fridays when advertised. I have several bus maps from 66 and 67 and the adverts for rover tickets there are quite clear about validity being weekends only. However from other sources I have since learned that they were also issued for use on weekdays in August. As the bus map was an essential piece of kit for bus spotters it is likely that most from my generation will have taken the statement there as definitive.

I didn't keep up with what was available after 66 as I started finding girls more interesting than bus spotting.

The ticket offeri

Red Rovers weren't initially available during the summer school holiday, it came a year or two later for the child version at least. I remember reading the ecstatic news advertised on the side of an RT bus. A newsagent quite near to my home stocked the rover tickets, but I've an idea it also sold coach tickets, so may have been an agent of London Coastal Coaches.

 

[30907]

I'm trying to work out where I might have bought Red-/Twin Rovers from in 65-66 - definitely not a garage as TB and ED were two buses awaywere; possibly my dad got them at 55 Broadway the day before?

Slightly OT but could you not buy a Green Rover on the bus? The 0931 (410) from Bromley Market Place or a 403 or 408/470 from West Croydon...

 

[Roger1973]

Slightly OT but could you not buy a Green Rover on the bus? The 0931 (410) from Bromley Market Place or a 403 or 408/470 from West Croydon...

Yes. Some pictures here.

Country bus Gibson ticket machines showed the date rather than a route number (as buses and their crews often worked multiple routes in a day) so it was practical. Although the 'bell punch' style (they were printed on a strip rather than the traditional block of tickets) also existed - these could possibly have been issued by OMO drivers who had 'Ultimate' ticket machines which didn't print a date.

At various stages, the ticket class X or EMS (by then obsolete as 'Early Morning Single') was used on Gibson machines, presume X on Setright machines (as they did not have an 'EMS' class) and later V1 and V2 for green / gold rover tickets on Almex machines.

Country buses did go through a phase of using different coloured Gibson rolls each year (or at least a cycle that repeated every few years) to discourage people keeping the ticket and trying to use it again the next year...

 

[AM9]

I used Twin Rovers a few times to discover the then LT underground network. They were 4s 3d for a half fare and enables travel on all red buses (routes 1 to 299), trolleybuses (routes 500 to 699) and Underground lines everywhere including the Bakerloo to Watford Junction, except to Rickmansworth and beyond on the Metropolitan main Line. I usually bought mine from Hainault Station.
In that period (around 1960), that the Met was being four-tracked from Harrow to the Watford branch line junction. Because of the Twin Rover limitation, I could only travel on the Watford services which were all compartment EMUs painted a muddy brown. The express services were similar style coaches hauled by Bo-Bo locos like Sarah Siddons and her siblings.
The flexibility of the ticket was a real boon, I could catch a Central line train from Hainault or catch a bus to Gants hill to pick one up there. I went to the extremities of most of the tube lines, in some cases catching a bus back to central London (I specifically remember riding the Piccadilly to Cockfosters and then catching a route 29 bus outside the station right back to Victoria). Happy memories of a time when I learnt so much of the geography of London and its LT transport system.

 

[Route115?]

Back in I think 1976 I bought a 'Go as you please' ticket which was valid on both modes. There was certainly a weekly ticket and I think that they sold annual passes. There was a Rail only rover valid in the central area which was a daily ticket with I think an AM time limit on weekdays, although it may well have been before the zonal system was introduced. I can't remember what it was called. 'Central tube rover'? The London Traveller effectively replaced 'Go as you please' but by then the Travelcard / Capitalcard (one was also valid on B.R.) which were geared towards locals had been introduced and they were cheaper than the London Explorer which was aimed at tourists, so not many of the latter were sold. Its over forty years ago and my memory may be playing tricks so I'm happy to be corrected.

 

[Seehof]

The March in the year that Twin Rovers were withdrawn I got “caught” at Burnt Oak station using one which had been sold to me by my local travel agent (Kirby’s, Bushey Heath). Neither I nor they knew they were no longer valid. I had travelled from Edgware to Burnt Oak on the Northern line to take the lovely long 52 bus from there to Victoria. The staff were very nice and rang control, eventually they withdrew it and gave me a red bus rover free of charge. They were all very nice about it but boy did I miss travelling on the Underground!

 

[Surreytraveller]

Golden Rovers were the ones you could use on Green Line coaches

 

[341o2]

Green Rovers for the country buses. Subject of Rover tickets was discussed on this forum here https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rover-tickets.149497/

 

[PeterC]

Golden Rovers were the ones you could use on Green Line coaches

They didn't come into being until some time after the period the OP was discussing