On a typical journey by road, bus or tram, passengers will be boarding and alighting at various stops and stations along the route in a seemingly random fashion. Each possibility will have its own fare, and this fare might vary over the course of a day, week or season, and certain passengers will be entitled to concessions or have vouchers and passes that let them travel without a ticket. Imagine all the mathematical possibilities each passenger could inflict upon the ill-prepared ticket vendor.

Of course, a list of fare permutations can be worked out with a small booklet, but for the average transport operator, printing a booklet for every vendor for every route would be a costly exercise. And for the vendor, flicking through the booklet to find the right fare and then allocate a ticket to each passenger before they get off without paying is unlikely to happen.

Now it is clear why transport operators have chosen TouchStar’s updateable, power saving, robust, portable TouchPC computers and printers to take the strain. A few presses of the touchscreen are enough to have an accurately priced ticket feeding out. Throw in a credit/debit card reader and a comprehensive ticketing service can be put into action.