Permit to travel

The 1990s. British Rail was being run down ready for its carving up and selling off to the private sector. And for a group of young Bromley supporters it presented a golden opportunity for discount away travel.

Many of you will remember Connex and the Major government’s sterling efforts to turn much of South London’s rail network into a British version of the New York City subway of the early 80s. The slam door trains on the stopping services were being replaced by the driver-only-operated Networker trains that are still falling to bits and catching fire today, and stations were routinely left unstaffed. For us football-mad, cash-strapped teenagers, this meant that travelling to many away games became effectively free, or to be more precise – cost the princely sum of 5p. You could go miles by suburban train without seeing a single member of railway staff.

The running down of the local railways hailed the advent of the Permit To Travel machine. These machines were provided at stations to allow people to travel when the ticket office was closed. The minimum you could put in was 5p (when you didn’t have any 5p coins and had to put in a 10p, or god forbid, a 20p you felt like you’d been robbed). The idea was that when you got to your destination you'd show the staff the Permit To Travel and they'd charge you the difference between the fare and what you had paid. You were meant to put in as much change as you had on you but nobody did.