APTIS ticket features

Tickets issued from British Rail's APTIS system had a considerable amount of detail, presented in a consistent, standard format. The design for all tickets was created by Colin Goodall. This format has formed the basis for all subsequent ticket issuing systems introduced on the railway network - Ticket Office-based, self-service and conductor-operated machines alike. Much of the following summary is therefore applicable to the other systems featured in the "British railway ticket machines (computerised)" section.

The coloured bands at the top and bottom varied as follows:

Clause 17 of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static/documents/content/NRCOC.pdf) states that "A return ticket (including a two-part return ticket) is only valid for the outward journey shown on that ticket if the ticket is completely unused. You may not use the outward part of a return ticket after you have used the return part." This is to prevent the 'reversing' of tickets where a cheaper ticket can be bought by travelling in the opposite direction (e.g. purchasing a return OUT of London, when travelling 'IN' to London)

Although APTIS is no longer used, most National Rail tickets are printed to a similar design (Standard New Generation).

On the original APTIS tickets, the field describers such as "Class" and "Ticket type" were pre-printed on the ticket stock, but now all information is printed on the stock by the issuing machine.

A new design is being introduced from March 2014.

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