Train tickets

[camp freddie]

Might seem a strange question, but how do train tickets and the ticket barriers know I have got off at the correct station I paid to travel to? Is something printed in the black-strip on the reverse with date and station information?

[oOTomOo]

The little man inside the ticket barrier reads your ticket and decides if he should let you through or not..

Simples

[john_p]

A high resolution video camera above each barrier takes a picture of the ticket as you put it in the slot. It then gets beamed to the Network Rail Ticket Processing centre in Mumbai where they compare your ticket to the records from the station you bought it from, and then press a green or red button to allow you through or flash up "Seek Assistance". Occasionally the system gets backed up and so they delay the trains a bit to reduce the flow of people. Probably.

[john_p]

Actually it's in the magnetic strip as you say

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APTIS_ticket_features

[tight5]

camp freddie said:

Might seem a strange question, but how do train tickets and the ticket barriers know I have got off at the correct station I paid to travel to?

there was something about this on local news here a while ago -

a bloke got off his train a stop early but had boarded a later train than he should have . the train he paid for didn't stop at the station he wanted ( and he would have had to get on another one back for one stop ) , the barriers wouldn't let him through and he had to pay for another ticket .

can't remember if the train company gave him the money back though .