§ 39. Mr. Hooleyasked the Lord President of the Council in view of the fact that certain booking offices of British Railways have been instructed not to issue tickets against Parliamentary travel warrants, and that this involves some hon. Members in double booking at extra inconvenience and difficulty, if he will discuss this matter with British Railways with a view to finding a solution.
§ Mr. PeartAt certain branch line stations, as a measure of economy, full ticket issuing facilities have been withdrawn, because of lack of demand. This means that warrants cannot be exchanged for main line tickets at the stations. At the particular station used by the hon. Member, this new system was wrongly applied, due to a misunderstanding, but there should be no further difficulty in exchanging his warrants.
I will see what can be done to help Members generally.
§ Mr. HooleyMay I thank my right hon. Friend for the vigour and energy with which he has pursued this matter and hope that the message has got down the wires to the booking clerks? But could he make further representations to British Railways on this, that it should accept warrants, as it ought to do, or accept warrants in lieu of tickets on the train, and stop this absurd double booking nonsense, which is highly inconvenient?