User:Hassocks5489/NLC article

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**Shere FASTticket**
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Full title:	Shere FASTticket
Usage:	Self-service machine
First introduced:	1996
Machine number range:	4000-4685
Window numbering:	Upwards from 81
Type of ticket stock:	Hopper-fed
Manufacturer:	Shere Ltd, Guildford, Surrey
Locations/Areas/TOCs:	Virgin Trains; Great North Eastern Railway; Southern; First Great Western; Midland Mainline; Gatwick Express; Chiltern Railways; First TransPennine Express; 'one' Railway; First Capital Connect; Silverlink; c2c

The Shere FASTticket system is a passenger-operated, self-service railway ticket issuing system, developed by the Guildford-based company Shere Ltd and first introduced on a trial basis in Britain in 1996, shortly after privatisation. It has been developed and upgraded consistently since then, and is now used by eight Train Operating Companies (TOCs) as their primary self-service ticket issuing system. Other TOCs have FASTticket machines at some of their stations, sometimes supplementing other systems.

1 History
2 Installation Programme
3 Features
4 Ticket Stock
5 Links

[edit] History

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 Ltd. 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.

At the same time, few of Britain's major stations had any form of self-service ticket purchasing.

TOC	No. of machines	First installed	Notes
Southern	181 (+ 6 trial)	2004
Virgin Trains	70	1999	All accept debit/credit cards only (no cash)
Great North Eastern Railway	65 (+ 3 trial)	x	All accept debit/credit cards only (no cash)
First Great Western	49 (+ 10 trial)	x	x
Chiltern Railways	37		Two machines originally trialled at London Marylebone - these still exist
Midland Mainline	13	x	All accept debit/credit cards only (no cash)
First TransPennine Express	12	2005
Gatwick Express	3		Two at Gatwick Airport; one at London Victoria
First Capital Connect (WAGN)	35
First Capital Connect (Thameslink)	20	2004
'one' Railway	17 (+ 15 trial)
c2c	12
Silverlink	9
Southeastern	10		Trial machines as follows, all now removed: Dartford (2), Sevenoaks (2), London Bridge (3), Bromley South (1), Gillingham (Kent) (1), Chatham (1)
South West Trains	6		Trial machines as follows, all now removed: Walton-on-Thames (1), Wokingham (1), Farnborough Main (1), Havant (3)