Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress

British railway ticket systems (computerised)


Name = Scheidt & Bachmann
FAA-2000/TS (ATOC)
Usage = Self-service machine
Stock = Fan-fold
Manuf = [http://www.scheidt-bachmann.com/content/blogcategory/164/57/ Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, Mönchengladbach, Germany]
Date = 2003
Machines = 2000-2950
Windows = Upwards from 21
Total = 747
Current =
Arriva Trains Wales

East Midlands Trains

First Capital Connect

First Great Western

First ScotRail

Merseyrail

Northern Rail

'one' Railway

Silverlink

Southeastern

South West Trains

The Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress system is a passenger-operated, self-service railway ticket issuing system developed and manufactured by the German systems development and production group Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, based in the city of Mönchengladbach. Since 2001, British company The Needham Group Ltd has been the sole agent and distributor within Britain for all products and services in Scheidt & Bachmann's Fare Collection Systems division. [http://www.needham-group.com/cocoon/needham/fare/fare.html] Since the first trial installations in 2003, seven Train Operating Companies (TOCs) in Great Britain have adopted the system as their main passenger-operated ticket vending method, while four others have installed machines at certain stations on their networks.

History and origins

The company

Scheidt & Bachmann was founded in 1872 as a manufacturer of textile machinery and small steam-driven engines for industrial use. Its earliest diversification was into railway signal control systems, which became its main area of business until 1932. At that time, the company developed and began to manufacture a new type of hand-operated petrol pump. Further diversification occurred in the 1960s, with the development of control, access and management systems for public car parks and, subsequently, public leisure facilities such as swimming pools and council-owned leisure centres.

The company's first entry into the ticket issuing and fare collection systems market came in 1978, with the technology initially being derived from the successful car park control systems before being developed further and refined.

The company is now organised into four largely autonomous divisions, corresponding to the different business areas:

* Signal Technology
* Petrol Stations
* Car Parks and Leisure Centres
* Fare Collection Systems

[http://www.scheidt-bachmann.com/content/blogcategory/189/263/ Full history]

The situation before Ticket XPress

In the last years of British Rail, before privatisation, the main passenger-operated ticket issuing system (POTIS) on the network was the "Quickfare" B8050, developed in the late 1980s by Swiss company Ascom Autelca AG. These machines were geared towards high-volume, low-value transactions: they only accepted cash, offered a small and mostly unchanging range of destinations, and were a minor evolution from similar earlier machines whose computer technology was based in the early 1980s. Quickfares were widespread, especially in the erstwhile Network SouthEast area, but their limitations were increasing as technology became more sophisticated.

Installation programme

The company had initially gained experience in the design and manufacture of self-service ticket machines during the 1990s, when the FAA-2000 system, popular on continental European railway networks, was developed. [http://www.intertraffic.com/marketplace/mypage/products_detail.asp?mypageid=140&productid=1133] By the early 2000s, a refined design, marketed as FAA-2000/TS, had been launched. Its modern touch-screen technology, flexible and easily customisable interface and ability to accept cash or card payments made it a popular choice with transport operators in urban areas including New York City, Cologne, Copenhagen and Dublin. A version of this newer design, with the codename FAA-2000/TS (ATOC), was put on trial in August 2003 at Twickenham, a South West Trains station. In conjunction with the redesign and rebuilding of the station forecourt area, two Ticket XPress machines - numbered 2000 and 2001 - were built into a wall next to the main station entrance.

At this stage, three companies were competing for trials and, ultimately, contracts from the Train Operating Companies for their systems (the Ticket XPress, Ascom's EasyTicket system and the FASTticket from Shere); Scheidt & Bachmann was the last entrant to the self-service machine market, as Shere's FASTticket product had been installed either permanently or on trial at various locations from as far back as 1996, and an Ascom EasyTicket machine had been operating for nearly six months at one of Britain's busiest stations, Gatwick Airport. The start of the trial at Twickenham meant that all three systems could now be compared properly, taking note of passenger reactions and feedback.

The earliest large-scale adopters of Ticket XPress machines were ScotRail, which subsequently became First ScotRail, and South Eastern Trains (now Southeastern (train operating company)). ScotRail introduced machines at Glasgow Central and Queen Street, and Edinburgh's Waverley and Haymarket stations, in January and February 2004. These were followed by further machines in central Scotland, and at smaller stations on the North Berwick Line and Edinburgh to Bathgate Line. More were added elsewhere in 2005 [http://www.firstgroup.com/scotrail/content/news/view-scotrail-press-release.php?id=00000000030] , and the installation programme is continuing gradually as of January 2007, with a machine being placed at Stirling and South Gyle.

External links

* [http://www.stannsulyn.dsl.pipex.com/machines/scheidt.pdf List of known Ticket XPress machines as of February 2006]
* [http://www.scheidt-bachmann.com/content/blogcategory/164/57/ Scheidt & Bachmann Fare Collection Systems main page]
* [http://www.scheidt-bachmann.com/content/blogcategory/171/180/ Examples of the FAA-2000/TS (ATOC) and its predecessors]
* [http://railpro.co.uk/issues/pdfs/mar06mourant.pdf Article in "Rail Professional", March 2006]