Last call for ticket work horse

The last ticket to be issued at a UK rail station from an APTIS machine has been issued at Upminster station by one of the first booking office clerks to use the system on c2c when they were introduced on the route in 1987. Terry Cox, who works as Retail Support Controller at Westcliff, was on the early turn in Benfleet booking where, in January 1987, the then state of the art APTIS machine was introduced on c2c. He missed out on issuing the very first ticket because his then boss, now sadly no longer with us, came into work especially early at 0430 to be the first c2c employee to issue a ticket to a member of the public using the new machine. He only issued one, then Terry took over!

The APTIS machine (which originally stood for All Purpose Ticket Issuing System and later for Accountancy & Passenger Ticket Issuing System) became the Rail ticketing issuing system in the 1980's across British Rail.

It was built by Thorn EMI for British Rail and the prototype machines were introduced in 1982. Benfleet having received the first APTIS machine in January 1987, and Upminster followed in November of the same year.

The system lasted a quarter of a century, mainly as a result of the speed that the machine could issue the ticket. Gradually superceded by modern technology, it was the inability of APTIS to process Chip & Pin that led to a contract being obtained for the replacement FASTIS+ machine, which is now in use at a number of c2c stations.

After the issue of the last ticket, the Aptis machine was withdrawn and replaced by FASTIS+.

Mark Hopwood, MD of c2c said; For most people a ticket machine is a ticket machine and as far as members of the public are concerned they are only interested in how quickly it can issue their ticket - and understandably so. But for the industry, this really is the end of an era. For over 20 years this machine has issued billions of tickets and in its own way helped to keep the railway running. The fact that it is now being replaced by a much faster machine does not detract from the fact that in its day the APTIS machine was the Rolls Royce of ticket issuing equipment. It is most appropriate that the last person to use this machine should be one of the first people to use the system when it was introduced on c2c.

Details of all c2c services can be obtained by calling 08457 48 49 50.