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c. British. Railways. staff and ticket: used as a modifier, designating a system of preventing collisions on a single-track railway line, by which the train driver may be issued with a ticket authorizing the train to travel along the line without carrying the staff (see sense 7m) as long as the signalman at the beginning of the line shows the staff to the driver, the final train in that direction carrying the staff and no train being allowed to travel in the opposite direction until the staff arrives at the other end of the line; frequently in staff and ticket system. Now chiefly historical.This system was introduced in the late 1850s in order to allow multiple trains to pass in one direction at a time, whereas the earlier staff system only allowed a single train at a time. Tickets were often kept in a locked box to which the staff functioned as the key.