PORTIS (Portable Operated Ticket Issuing System) and latterly SPORTIS were portable ticket issuing systems used on

Rail transport in Great Britain The railway system in Great Britain is the oldest railway system in the world. The first locomotive-hauled public railway opened in 1825, which was followed by an era of rapid expansion. Most of the track is managed by Network Rail, which in ...

from 1982 until 2006. The system was also formerly used by

Northern Ireland Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) ( ga, Iarnród Thuaisceart Éireann); and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink (Northern Ire ...

for the issue of all tickets, including at railway station booking offices.

PORTIS

These machines were developed by

Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * '' Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...

Information Technology Applications in Transport. Peter W. Bonsall, Michael G. H. Bell, VSP, 1987 with the prototype of PORTIS being introduced from 3 May 1982 in the

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

area. They replaced the Almex machines with Omniprinter that were used previously for on-board train ticket sales. The PORTIS was the first British Railways ticket issuing system to use thermal roll ticket stock. The production version of PORTIS was introduced in 1986.

SPORTIS

A modified version which accepted credit-cards was introduced slightly later, known as SPORTIS (Super Portable Ticket Issuing System). The SPORTIS memory was configured for each route that the machine would operate, so that it held the most likely fares that would be requested. If an unusual fare was requested, then the ticket inspector would have to refer to fares manuals and enter the details manually. SPORTIS could not encode the magnetic stripe on the back of tickets, so tickets issued using the system could not be used in automated ticket gates. SPORTIS weighed around 2.9 kg. The original specification stated that it should be about the same weight as two bags of sugar.

Replacement

As of 2006 all SPORTIS have been replaced by

Avantix Mobile Avantix Mobile ("AVB") is a portable railway ticket issuing system used across the British railway network from 2001 to 2017. Development Development started in 2000 by Sema Group plc, an IT services company which was acquired by Schlumberger ...

or Paper Ticket Pads, RSP 4407/4408 series for those Train Operating Companies, for example, Merseyrail, who did not adopt Avantix Mobile as a replacement.

References

British Rail fares and ticketing Fare collection systems in the United Kingdom Public transport information systems Travel technology {{UK-rail-transport-stub