File:APTIS Tickets x6 - Variations on LONDON.jpg

Six railway tickets from the now redundant APTIS ticket issuing system, showing variations in the rendering of the notional "London station group".

My own ticket collection

London station group

The only element of these tickets which is subject to copyright is the "double arrow" logo, owned by the Secretary of State for Transport (see here and here).

Yes: these tickets are rendered at a low resolution which prevents any meaningful reproduction (in particular, the security background on each ticket is significantly blurred).

To illustrate the evolution of the wording used by British Rail and the post-privatisation railway system to convey the notion of a common London terminal station. This is a complex, esoteric subject which is difficult to convey to both experts and ordinary readers in words; the terms used can only be understood and put into context by reference to images of real tickets.

The only places in which the wordings shown here (LONDON BRIT RAIL, LONDON BR etc) are used are on tickets and in railway industry official documents, such as fares manuals and route guides; as such, the use of a ticket printed with such wording to illustrate the concept is unavoidable.

As the APTIS system was rendered obsolete in 2006, there is no risk of ticket images being used for fraudulent purposes.