Automatic Fare Collection on London Buses

A motley group of London Transport office staff line up to test the efficiency of two bus driver-operated ticket machines.

After trials on out of town and single deck bus services, London Transport experimented ‘pay as you enter’ double deck buses with simplified or flat fares in central London from 1971 onwards. This film shows two experimental systems in a stationary test - one where the driver takes the fare and issues a ticket to a succession of LT staff, and another where they put coins into a self-service machine.

In the real world, where passengers did not all have the right change or know where they were going, progress onto buses was much slower, causing delays and a barrage of complaints. This film is from the collection of London Transport Museum, a member of the London's Screen Archives Network.