Validator

A validator (also known as ticket validator or ticket validator ) is an electronic or mechanical system that is used to mark tickets , platform cards or other access cards in order to document the time of their use or at least to prevent further use. Re-use can be prevented, for example, by means of a separation system.

The cancellation can be done in different ways:

By punching the ticket in a designated place, for example with a conductor's pliers .
By punching away a line-high piece of the stepped edge on the left of the box. In this way, the next line can be stamped the next time it is inserted.
The use of the ticket is encoded on a magnetic strip similar to a credit card .
Imprint of a code, usually consisting of date, time, device number and location (tariff zone), often in connection with an electronic or mechanical variant.

Validators are mainly used in local public transport and - in France, Italy and Switzerland - in long-distance passenger rail transport , but also at fairs, ski facilities and other publicly accessible facilities that are subject to charges. They can either be stationary at stops or train stations, or mobile in the vehicle. At the time of their introduction in the 1960s and 1970s, they were also called iron conductors in Germany , although this term is also used for ticket machines .

Train attendants usually mark tickets with validation pliers, which previously only punched a hole in the ticket. Modern stamping tongs provide the cards with a stamp, which can contain various information such as date, time, number of the train, the tongs and the like.

Mobile validator made by Elgeba on the Kassel tram
Stationary validator made by Klüssendorf on the Munich S-Bahn
Inner life of a validator from Prague
Stripe card of the MVV with cancellation imprints
Validator of the Austrian Federal Railways, where you can also buy the so-called mobile phone ticket using NFC technology.

Punching machine

A special form of mechanical validators are the so-called hole validators, which are much easier to maintain than stamp validators or print validators and, above all, do not require a power supply. They are or were predominantly to be found in the formerly socialist-ruled states of Central Eastern Europe . In the GDR , they replaced the payment boxes that were initially used for conductors-less operations . The sale of tickets was thus shifted from the vehicles to local sales outlets. Before using the means of transport, trading cards usually had to be purchased outside of the city. Only in cities with a high proportion of tourists, for example in East Berlin , was the payment box retained as a sales device.

In the principle of a hole punch , several metal pins are pushed through the ticket. Often this was done manually, with the passenger having to press a button or operate a lever. More modern devices, however, already punch automatically, i.e. electrically. On the ticket there is partially the matching pattern with numbered fields, each car is assigned a specific number combination. It can happen that a different hole pattern is stamped in the railcar than in the sidecar. In the case of transport companies with a large number of vehicles, the patterns are repeated in several vehicles, since only a corresponding number of combinations is possible. Two standard models developed in the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (RGW):

in the GDR, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia: twelve fields (two by six in a rectangular arrangement) with four holes
in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania and Hungary: nine fields (three times three in a square arrangement) with three holes, here 511 different combinations are possible

Typical mechanical punching machine from the GDR
Sofia: punching machine with manual cancellation, horizontal introduction
Czech punching machine with manual cancellation, vertical introduction
Czech punching machine with push button for manual operation

During a ticket inspection, the inspection staff first perforates a piece of paper themselves as a test, and the resulting perforation pattern is then compared with the patterns on the passengers' tickets. The combination of numbers is changed from time to time, usually when you stay at the depot at night, more rarely during the day at terminal stops. Theoretically, with a validated punched ticket, a certain car can be used as often as desired over a period of several days until its punch code is changed.

A prerequisite for the use of punching machines is a simple tariff system that does not allow changes for single journeys. The Frankfurt an der Oder tram was an exception , as there were also punched-out tickets where a second field had to be punched after changing.

While the hole patterns are usually not systematically related to vehicle numbers , line or date, the line number and (to a limited extent) the date were mapped in binary code on the punching machines used in Magdeburg until the early 1990s. In Magdeburg, the tickets were also valid for transfers.

Nine-field single ticket from Belgrade , fields 2, 3 and 6 are punched
Nine-field multi-trip ticket from the Timișoara Regia Autonomă de Transport from Romania, 1994
Twelve-field single ticket from Brno , fields 1, 8, 9 and 12 are perforated