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Ticket issuing machine

The TIM – the ticket issuing machine – was used introduced on buses in the Tees Valley in the late 1940s. This revolutionary new machine could print all kinds of different tickets at different prices, whereas before, the conductor, whose job it was to sell and check tickets, would have to carry a range of different pre-printed tickets.

Ticket issuing machine, c.1947-61

With the TIM, the conductor would ‘dial’ a price depending on the journey, turn the handle and a paper ticket would come from the machine. The ticket showed which stage the customer joined the bus, the price paid and the date. One Hartlepool resident remembers it being “2 pence to go from the Dyke House to Seaton – in the good old days”.

Image courtesy of Hartlepool Borough Council