APTIS
 |
|
| 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 until 2007. It was originally called "Advanced Passenger Ticket Issuing System" as it was being developed at the time of the Advanced Passenger Train.
It was widely known as the All-Purpose Ticket-Issuing System, a description which was used during the development of the prototype devices.
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.
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.
APTIS could issue receipts for passengers paying by debit card or credit card. 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.
APTIS was derived from a private venture ticketing system, the General Purpose ticket-issuing system, developed by Thorn EMI in 1978. It had 25 kB of memory.
British Rail asked 23 firms to tender for a ticket-issuing system and Thorn EMI was successful. 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. The production APTIS machines had 300 kB of memory; this could be upgraded to 500 kB.
Some 2,971 APTIS machines were scheduled to be installed at 1,600 staffed British Rail stations between August 1985 and September 1987.
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