These are the original card designs supplied for both Bus-Rail weekly and Bus-Rail Quarterly and Yearly tickets. The Weekly tickets were distinguished with a blue lower block. Quarterly and Yearly tickets had a lower white half with a blue band and were printed on a more durable plasticized card. The silver strip on the face of Quarterly and Yearly is the unprinted portion located over the magnetic strip on the rear. Over the lifetime of the ticket, this strip remained notably clean due to constant contact with the phonic reading head inside the barriers. The same effect can be seen on the rear of the ticket on both sides of the magnetic strip. The overall discolouration on the rest of the ticket is the prolonged contact with the rubber belt inside the barriers. It appears the weekly design was phased out within the first 12 months and replaced by a dedicated design to distinguish it from the quarterly and yearly card which remianed in use.
The PTC's staff instructions described these tickets as "BUSESRAIL Weekly" and the Edmondson card tickets held at City stations for this ticket type were worded identically. It is not clear why the equivalent magnetic strip ticket was instead identified as "Transit". BUSESRAIL Transit tickets were abolished in conjunction with the fare rise of the 3rd July 1988. |
