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Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress

Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress
Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress (sign).jpg
System information
Full name Scheidt & Bachmann
FAA-2000/TS (ATOC)
Machine type Self-service machine
Type of ticket stock Fan-fold
Manufacturer Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, Mönchengladbach, Germany
History
First introduced 2003
Machine number range 2000–3717
Window number range Upwards from 21
Machines in use 1,594
Locations/Areas/Train Operating Companies
Current users Abellio Greater Anglia
Arriva Trains Wales
East Midlands Trains
First Capital Connect
First Great Western
Abellio ScotRail
London Overground
Manchester Metrolink
Merseyrail
Northern Rail
South West Trains
Southeastern
Tyne and Wear Metro

The Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress system is a passenger-operated self-service railway ticket issuing system developed and manufactured by the German systems development and production group Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, based in the city of Mönchengladbach. Since the first trial installations in 2003, seven train operating companies (TOCs) in Great Britain have adopted the system as their main passenger-operated ticket vending method, while four others have installed machines at certain stations on their networks. More than 1,500 machines are in place across the country, and more than 850 stations have one or more. Machines can accept cash and/or payment cards and can sell most National Rail tickets.

Ticket XPress machines, also known by the codename FAA-2000/TS (ATOC), were developed in the early 2000s and were based on similar technology which had been used elsewhere in the world since the 1990s. Since 2004, when the first large-scale contracts were signed by TOCs in Scotland and southeast England, new machines have been installed regularly; meanwhile there have been gradual changes to the user interface and to the appearance of tickets issued by the machines.

Scheidt & Bachmann was founded in 1872 as a manufacturer of textile machinery and small steam-driven engines for industrial use. Its earliest diversification was into railway signal control systems, which became its main area of business until 1932. At that time, the company developed and began to manufacture a new type of hand-operated petrol pump. Further diversification occurred in the 1960s, when Scheidt & Bachmann developed control, access and management systems for public car parks and, subsequently, public leisure facilities such as swimming pools and council-owned leisure centres. The company's first entry into the ticket issuing and fare collection systems market came in 1978. The technology was initially derived from car park control systems, and was later developed further and refined. The company is now organised into four largely autonomous divisions corresponding to the different business areas: Signal Technology, Petrol Stations, Car Parks and Leisure Centres, and Fare Collection Systems.

In the last years of British Rail, before privatisation, the main passenger-operated ticket issuing system (POTIS) on the network was the Ascom B8050 Quickfare, developed in the late 1980s by Swiss company Ascom Autelca AG. Quickfare machines were geared towards high-volume, low-value transactions: they only accepted cash, offered a small and mostly unchanging range of destinations, and were a minor evolution from similar earlier machines whose computer technology was based in the early 1980s. Quickfares were widespread, especially in the erstwhile Network SouthEast area, but their limitations were increasing as technology became more sophisticated.


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