Goodbye APTIS

Well it's served the rail industry well for the past 20 years or so, but APTIS is in the process of final withdrawal, and being replaced by a wide range of PC-based TIS as, sadly, it is no longer capable of handling everything asked of it.

Not only does APTIS suffer from limited memory, the cartridges that are used for backups are no longer made. In addition, the machines only have fares from the station they're at stored in them. For anything else, you need to look up the fare (and associated restrictions), and if the ticket type isn't in the memory you have to swipe a five line barcode to tell it how to issue it.

Later this year, the current maintenace contract for the machines expires, and the new contract means that any TOCs still using them will share the maintenance cost. So if, for example, the contract is priced at £1 million, and there are 100 machines left in the country, that's £10000 per machine, and if a TOC has 10 machines, that'll cost them £100000. Similarly, if a TOC has the last machine left in the country, they'll have to pay the full £1 million!

The main "contenders" for the "New TIS" programme are as follows:

• ATOS Origin - Tribute. First introduced in 1994, Tribute is the grandaddy of the current range of PC-based TIS. It offers both a GUI and text-based interface, with an "all-in-one" approach. You can enter journey details, look up fares, check availability, make reservations and issue tickets all from within Tribute. When equipped with a suitable printer, it will also quite happily issue Eurostar tickets as well. Accountancy procedures are much the same as APTIS too, affording a smoother learning curve. Being used by the various National Express Group franchises, and also by First Capital Connect at the former WAGN stations.


• Cubic Transportation Systems - FasTIS. Currently being rolled out on Chiltern Railways and Northern Rail, this is an expanded version of the system that CTS provided for London Underground as part of the Prestige (now Oyster) project.


• Shere - SMART. Shere are perhaps best known for their range of "FAST" Self-Service Ticket Machines, installed at stations across the country, but SMART is their Ticket Office system, which is being used by Southern Railway and also First Capital Connect at the former Thameslink stations. Uses a totally electronic Shift Sheet, with clerks having to do their own Sundry transactions (e.g. for Admin fees for Refunds). Also has a built-in Refund and Season Ticket Database. Reservations, however, have to be made through RJIS and then transferred to SMART.


• Fujitsu - STAR. As I understand it, STAR is an enhanced version of RJIS, offering full retail facilities, much the same as the other systems mentioned here. I have yet to see it in action, however. It is being used by Merseyrail and South West Trains.

Those are the four major systems being considered for APTIS replacement purposes, it just remains to be seen what the remaining TOCs choose to replace their machines with.

Tree Day

In the good old US of A, they have what they call a "snow day" if the snow's so bad that the kids can't get to school. Yesterday, we had a "tree day", with no less than four separate tree-related incidents.

• Overhanging branches at one end of the route, trains being cautioned past
  
• Branch/small tree blown on to the line a bit further on from the above
• Tree on the line at the other end of the route
• Tree blocking station approach road

Yours truly was involved in the latter incident. Or, more specifically, in attempting "crowd" management/placating, given that we had no vehicular access to or from the station car park.

Despite putting out regular announcements, placing cones across the car park entrance, and our car park attendant putting hazard tape across the road, people were quite happily ignoring everything and driving down the road anyway...Ho hum.

When I eventually left, on the penultimate train of the night, the tree was still blocking the road and they were awaiting a tree surgeon.

And here's a photo of the tree in question: