 Aptis ProStation next to an Aptis machine at the National Railway Museum, York | |
| System information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | All Purpose Ticket Issuing System |
| Machine type | Ticket Office-based |
| Type of ticket stock | Manual/Hopper-fed |
| Manufacturer | Thorn EMI, Wells |
| History | |
| First introduced | October 1986 |
| Machine number range | 2000-5168 |
| Window number range | Upwards from 01 Downwards from 99 (spare machines) |
| Machines in use | 2,971 (maximum historic figure) 3 (as of March 2007) |
| Locations/areas/train operating companies | |
| Current users | none |
| Former users | Before privatisation: - All passenger sectors of British Rail After privatisation: - All train operating companies |
APTIS was the Accountancy and Passenger Ticket Issuing System used on the British Rail/National Rail network until 2007.[citation needed] It was originally called "Advanced Passenger Ticket Issuing System" as it was being developed at the time of the Advanced Passenger Train.[citation needed]
It was widely known as the All-Purpose Ticket-Issuing System, a description which was used during the development of the prototype devices.[1][2]
It led to the introduction, on the national railway, of a new standardised machine-printable ticket, the APTIS ticket, which replaced the Edmondson railway ticket first introduced in the 1840s.
Overview[edit]
APTIS issued impact printed tickets on credit-card sized card ticket stock, with a magnetic stripe on the centre of the reverse which could be encoded to operate ticket barriers; it could also use plain non-magnetic ticket stock.[1]
APTIS could issue receipts for passengers paying by debit card or credit card.[1] These receipts were a combination of a transparent carbonless copy paper top copy, for the customer; and a backing card, for retention by British Rail. The customer signed the receipt, handed it back; and, in return, was given the signed top copy and the train tickets.
Adoption by British Rail[edit]
APTIS was derived from a private venture ticketing system, the General Purpose ticket-issuing system, developed by Thorn EMI in 1978.[1] It had 25 kB of memory.[1]
British Rail invited 23 firms to tender for a ticket-issuing system and Thorn EMI was successful.[1] The first prototype was installed at Portsmouth & Southsea on 11 November 1982.
APTIS, along with the portable system PORTIS, was adopted as part of British Rail's £31 million investment, which was authorised in 1983.[3] The production APTIS machines had 300 kB of memory; this could be upgraded to 500 kB.[1]
Some 2,971 APTIS machines were scheduled to be installed at 1,600 staffed British Rail stations between August 1985 and September 1987.[1][2]
Phase-out of Edmondson tickets[edit]
The first production APTIS tickets were issued in October 1986 at stations including Didcot Parkway and Abbey Wood; the official launch was by Transport Minister David Mitchell at the British Rail Travel Centre, Regent Street, London, on 18 November 1986.[4] The first ticket was sold at Benfleet in January 1987.[5]
In 1988, the last of British Rail's Edmondson printing presses, located at the Paper and Printing Centre, Crewe, shut down.[6] The last station to sell Edmondson tickets prior to full APTIS conversion was Emerson Park, on Network SouthEast's Romford to Upminster Line, on 29 June 1989.[7]
Phase-out of APTIS[edit]
APTIS survived in widespread use for twenty years, but in the early 2000s was largely replaced by more modern PC based ticketing systems although some APTIS were modified as APTIS-ANT (with no obvious difference to the ticket issued) Oyster card compatible machines in the Greater London area.[8] The last APTIS machines were removed at the end of 2006 as there was no option to upgrade for accepting Chip and PIN credit-card payments. The last APTIS-ANT ticket to be issued in the UK using one of the machines was at Upminster station on 21 March 2007.[5][9][10]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ford, Roger (1984). "Technology Update: Ticket issuing and revenue control". In: Modern Railways, Volume 41, May 1984, Pages 256-257.
- ^ a b Glover, John (1985). "Mechanisation of ticket issuing". In: Modern Railways, Volume 42, April 1985, Pages 192-195.
- ^ Gourvish, Terry (2002). "Cost Control and Investment in the post-Serpell Railway". Chapter 6 In. British Rail: 1974-97: From Integration to Privatisation Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926909-9
- ^ The Railway Magazine issue 1029 January 1987 page 7.
- ^ a b An apt end for BR's APTIS Rail issue 563 11 April 2007 page 14
- ^ BR ends Edmondson The Railway Magazine issue 1043 March 1988 page 148
- ^ Farr, Michael (1991). Thomas Edmondson and his tickets. Andover: author. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-905033-13-6.
- ^ Ticketing: APTIS replacement takes shape Modern Railways issue 631 April 2001 pages 37-42
- ^ Last call for ticket work horse c2c 23 March 2007
- ^ Last APTIS ticket sold Today's Railways UK issue 66 June 2007 page 11
External links[edit]
- List of known APTIS machines as of 2004, with name and numbering variants and dates of installation (by route)- archived 23 July 2018 from the original