Magnetic stripe tickets
 

Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there experiments
before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I recall correctly)?

Thanks.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

"Orienteer" wrote in message
...
Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there
experiments
before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I recall correctly)?

Didn't the old yellow strip cards have a magnetic strip? Can't recall when
they came in, though. Presumably when the first automatic gates arrived.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
http://www.omnibussoc.org
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

On Thu, 4 Dec 2003 18:11:18 +0000 (UTC), "Terry Harper"
wrote:

"Orienteer" wrote in message
...
Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there
experiments
before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I recall correctly)?

Didn't the old yellow strip cards have a magnetic strip? Can't recall when
they came in, though. Presumably when the first automatic gates arrived.

ISTR when the Victoria line opened. They didn't have a stripe as such,
just a brown magnetic back.

LT staff, when giving talks about their proud new railway, claimed
that an old woman had asked why the ticket was brown on the back.
'That's oxide, madam", 'Doesn't look like leather to me.", she
replied.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

Orienteer wrote:
Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets
were first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there
experiments before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I
recall correctly)?


I think it was pre Victoria line opening. I've a set of notes that I got on
a training course many years back about the Rapid Printer (machine for
printing and encoding the original yellow magnetic tickets) that are dated
1968. These wouldn't have been used until the machines were being used so
mid 1960's seems a good starting point. I'll have a deeper delve to see if
anything is filed in the more remote regions of the house.


--
Cheers for now,

John from Harrow, Middx

remove spamnocars to reply

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

On Thu, 04 Dec 2003 17:32:21 GMT, "Orienteer"
wrote:

Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there experiments
before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I recall correctly)?


Like others in this thread, I'm sure it was about the time of the
Victoria Line opening in the late 1960s. This was very much a
production system, not just an experiment.

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets. The front of these tickets was
yellow to make them distinctive to passengers, so those with yellow
tickets could go through the automatic gates while those with other
tickets had to show them at a barrier

Martin

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

Martin Rich wrote:

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

In article ,
says...
Martin Rich wrote:

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC



Oxide-backed rapidprinter tickets for single and return journeys normally
only showed day and month, the earliest I have with a year showing is
dated November 1968. There were certainly weekly season tickets of this
type issued in 1970. From memory I think that Hammersmith was used
experimentally for oxide tickets prior to the opening of the Victoria
Line, and Stamford Brook and Turnham Green for non-oxide tickets showing
barcodes. AFAIK oxide Edmondsons didn't appear until 1979.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

"Jim Brittin" wrote in message
m...
In article ,
says...
Martin Rich wrote:

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC



Oxide-backed rapidprinter tickets for single and return journeys normally
only showed day and month, the earliest I have with a year showing is
dated November 1968. There were certainly weekly season tickets of this
type issued in 1970. From memory I think that Hammersmith was used
experimentally for oxide tickets prior to the opening of the Victoria
Line, and Stamford Brook and Turnham Green for non-oxide tickets showing
barcodes. AFAIK oxide Edmondsons didn't appear until 1979.

Thanks for all your responses.

Are there any books on (LT including LU) ticket history?

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 15:12:34 +0000 (UTC), Jim Brittin
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Martin Rich wrote:

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC



Oxide-backed rapidprinter tickets for single and return journeys normally
only showed day and month, the earliest I have with a year showing is
dated November 1968. There were certainly weekly season tickets of this
type issued in 1970. From memory I think that Hammersmith was used
experimentally for oxide tickets prior to the opening of the Victoria
Line, and Stamford Brook and Turnham Green for non-oxide tickets showing
barcodes. AFAIK oxide Edmondsons didn't appear until 1979.

As I used to work for someone who was involved with this back in the 60s
that all sounds correct to me except for the 1979 reference to oxide
Edmondson tickets. That seems very very late given that credit card
sized tickets for UTS were introduced in something like 1984/5 with
gates at Regents Park in 1987. I'd be surprised that a ticketing
development like that would be introduced when a brand new alternative
was under development.
--
Paul C
Admits to Working for London Underground!

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. ...

I visited Montreal at least three times in the 1960s and 1970s, and I'm
pretty sure the tickets for the Montreal Metro were of the same style
on each occasion. If I'm right, this means they were using magnetic-
stripe tickets there by 1967 -- presumably from 1966 when their first
two Metro lines opened.

Further, since the MUCTC/SCTUM chose to mimic the Paris Metro in various
respects, this suggests that Paris may also have been using magnetic-
stripe tickets by the mid-1960s. However, unless the Paris tickets
have changed size and shape since then, Montreal didn't copy that;
the Paris ones I've used (since 1985) are about Edmondson size, whereas
the Montreal ones I remember are smaller and squarer, like normal North
American transit tickets. So maybe Montreal didn't copy the use of
magnetic stripes from Paris either, in which case I have no idea when
they were first used in Paris.
--
Mark Brader "Doing the wrong thing is worse than doing nothing."
Toronto "Doing *anything* is worse than doing nothing!"
-- Lynn & Jay: YES, PRIME MINISTER

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

In article ,
(Stimpy) wrote:

Martin Rich wrote:

Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC

No, longer than an Edmondson, I'm sure. I have examples somewhere here.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

In message ,
Colin Rosenstiel writes
Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC

No, longer than an Edmondson, I'm sure. I have examples somewhere here.

On thinner card, too. Somewhere I've got one that was issued by a
pre-deployment demonstration system they installed at the Science
Museum. I think Clive might have one of those, too.
--
Roland Perry

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

From: (Colin Rosenstiel)
Date: 06/12/2003 14:55 GMT Standard Time

No, longer than an Edmondson, I'm sure. I have examples somewhere here.

I also have examples. Think they're between 125% and 150% longer than a
standard Edmondon, but the same width.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 21:49:10 -0000, (Mark Brader) wrote:
Further, since the MUCTC/SCTUM chose to mimic the Paris Metro in various
respects, this suggests that Paris may also have been using magnetic-
stripe tickets by the mid-1960s. However, unless the Paris tickets
have changed size and shape since then, Montreal didn't copy that;
the Paris ones I've used (since 1985) are about Edmondson size, whereas
the Montreal ones I remember are smaller and squarer, like normal North
American transit tickets. So maybe Montreal didn't copy the use of
magnetic stripes from Paris either, in which case I have no idea when
they were first used in Paris.

The excellent "Metro Insolite" by Clive Lamming (Parigramme, 2001) has
a page about the demise of the poinconneur - the person who sat at the
bottom of the stairs clipping thousands of tickets a day. A picture
from 1972 shows barriers, but with the old bus-style validators
perched awkwardly on top. I expect these just printed on the ticket.

The Ascom web site says that the contract for magnetic ticketing was
awarded to Crouzet (now Ascom) by 1968 and the equipment was in
service in 1969 - the year the first section of the RER opened. It
seems that it took a few more years more to reach the "real" metro.

Another good book, "La Patrimoine de la RATP" (Flohic Editions, 1996?)
has many interesting photos of older tickets but not much about the
use of magnetic tickets. It does show how the RATP used the stripy
appearance of the ticket in several different ways in their
advertising, including their "2eme voiture" (2nd car) campaign.

To bring this post back to London, I just about remember the old
ticket machines on the underground, with one machine (or more) for
each fare. The tickets were a bit sticky on the oxide side weren't
they? This subject definitely deserves a book...

Richard.

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

In article ,
are (Acrosticus) wrote:

From: (Colin Rosenstiel)
Date: 06/12/2003 14:55 GMT Standard Time

No, longer than an Edmondson, I'm sure. I have examples somewhere here.

I also have examples. Think they're between 125% and 150% longer than a
standard Edmondon, but the same width.

ITYM between 25% and 50% _longer._

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

Roland Perry wrote:
Colin Rosenstiel writes
Again as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, the whole of the back of
the ticket was a magnetic surface. However these tickets were much
smaller than the current tube tickets.

Same size as a 'proper' Edmondson ticket IIRC

No, longer than an Edmondson, I'm sure. I have examples somewhere here.

On thinner card, too. Somewhere I've got one that was issued by a
pre-deployment demonstration system they installed at the Science
Museum. I think Clive might have one of those, too.

Sounds like the Crouzet tickets that are still used in Adelaide, except
that those only have a narrow magnetic strip on the back. They are
rather a bad design, as the magnetic strip is weak, and far too easily
accidentally eresed! Did the London tickets have that problem?

Magnetic stripe tickets
 

In article ,
says...
Can anyone help answer a query from a friend in Japan?

He's trying to find information about when magnetic stripe tickets were
first used, and heard that LT had some in the 1960s. Were there experiments
before the current ones were introduced (1980s if I recall correctly)?

Thanks.



For anyone who cares to look I have posted some scans of London Transport
oxide-backed tickets. These are all totally backed by oxide rather than
a stripe, and can be viewed hopefully at the following link:

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrow...elected=662123

Jim