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TRIVIA: UK transport systems with ticket validators

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AY1975

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Ticket validators (also sometimes called cancellers), into which the passenger has to insert their ticket to date stamp it either before or just after boarding the bus, train or tram, have never been in widespread use in the UK, unlike in mainland Europe where they are commonplace - mainly on suburban rail, light rail, bus and metro systems but also on long-distance trains in some countries such as France (where they are called "composteurs" on the SNCF national rail network) and Italy.

Their purpose is to allow passengers to buy a ticket in advance of the day of travel (with some networks offering sets of, say, five or ten single journey tickets at a discount) and then validate them when they wish to use them, and to prevent passengers from reusing used but unmarked tickets that are still within their period of validity.

The only places I know of in the UK where they have ever been used are Sheffield Supertram and the Docklands Light Railway. In both cases, validators were used for about the first year or two of operation but were then abandoned. Sheffield Supertram also got rid of ticket machines at stops at the same time and replaced them with on-board conductors. I think the DLR replaced them with a 60 or 90 minute time limit on all single journey tickets (i.e. they had to be used within a certain number of minutes of the time of issue).

I also seem to recall that in about the mid-1990s First buses in Bristol had multi-journey cards that had to be validated for each journey using on-board validators.

Does anyone know of any other transport networks in the UK that have ever used ticket validators? I'm talking about paper ticket validators, not smartcard validators.
 
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Ianno87

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GM Buses/Greater Manchester Transport etc. used 'Clippercards' until c.2002; they had a strip of 10, and you stamped one for each journey you made.
 

PeterC

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London Transport had various experiments on buses in the 70s (or possibly late 60s, it was a long time ago).

I remember using one on the 103 in Romford using strip tickets. The fares were simplified to three, you put your ticket in pushed the button for a short (1 segment) medium (2) or long journey (3) to be let through a turnstile. The two lane entrance must have been a pig for old ladies with shopping trolleys let alone for pushchairs and the disabled.
 

radamfi

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GM Buses/Greater Manchester Transport etc. used 'Clippercards' until c.2002; they had a strip of 10, and you stamped one for each journey you made.

West Yorkshire PTE used the same technology under the brand "SaverStrip", but giving you 12 trips. It was used more extensively than in GM as it was also valid on local trains. Even the Metro DayRover had to be cancelled in the same way, and it had just one strip.

Finland and Denmark continued to use this technology long after the end of usage in Britain with Denmark only withdrawing the last cards a few years ago.
 

radamfi

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Concessionary only, though.

They had a whole range of Standard Clippercards for the most popular fares, for example 12p, 23p up to 46p, giving 10 trips for the price of 9, with Off-Peak and Teen Travel Clippercards, offering greater discounts. There was an Off-Peak Any Distance Clippercard for £3.70, making the maximum off-peak fare effectively 37p. After a few years of deregulation, only the Concessionary Clippercard remained.
 

higthomas

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Stagecoach Oxford have something along those lines. One can buy a 12 journey ticket which is valid for a year. It has 12 numbers up the side which are punched fro every journey taken.
 

transmanche

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London Transport had various experiments on buses in the 70s (or possibly late 60s, it was a long time ago).
I remember multi-ride tickets on flat fare routes back in the 1970s. The flat fare routes were clusters of feeder services with a letter prefix; e.g. the W routes based around Wood Green, E around Ealing, etc.

I remember using one on the 103 in Romford using strip tickets. The fares were simplified to three, you put your ticket in pushed the button for a short (1 segment) medium (2) or long journey (3) to be let through a turnstile. The two lane entrance must have been a pig for old ladies with shopping trolleys let alone for pushchairs and the disabled.
That'll be the Havering area experiment, to trial use of multi-ride tickets outside of the various flat-fare area schemes. Started in 1978, I think it lasted until the introduction of the suburban flat-fare of 25p.

multi1.png multi2.png
Images of two leaflets issued by London Transport in 1978. One showing an image of a red Fleetline bus with the headline 'Multi-Ride tickets save you time and money'. This leaflet was announcing the introduction of a new fares scheme in the Havering area of London. The second leaflet has a headline 'Why Multi-Ride is the cheapest trip in town' and shows a hand holding a Multi-Ride 'clipper' ticket strip.
 
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transmanche

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Does anyone know of any other transport networks in the UK that have ever used ticket validators? I'm talking about paper ticket validators, not smartcard validators.
London Underground introduced carnet tickets in 1996, for travel in Zone 1. Generally just used in standard ticket gates, there were stand-alone validators installed at various interchange points with National Rail services or at stations without ticket barriers.

I'm not sure when the system was finally scrapped, but it was effectively made obsolete by the introduction of Oyster PAYG.

1664-57.jpg

Image shows a London Underground poster apologising for the disruption caused by the installation of ticket validators, which includes an illustration of a ticket validator.

The Northern City line platforms at Moorgate had a validator, for passengers transferring from Northern City line trains to LU services.


Moorgate Underground station
by bowroaduk, on Flickr
Image shows a carnet validator sign with instruction on usage.
 
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AY1975

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West Yorkshire PTE used the same technology under the brand "SaverStrip", but giving you 12 trips. It was used more extensively than in GM as it was also valid on local trains. Even the Metro DayRover had to be cancelled in the same way, and it had just one strip.

Finland and Denmark continued to use this technology long after the end of usage in Britain with Denmark only withdrawing the last cards a few years ago.

Yes, and I seem to recall that when I went to Lisbon in 1991, Lisbon buses and trams used similar or identical validators to those used for GM Clippercards.
 
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