BEST ticket boxes go down in history

The metal sound while a BEST bus conductor goes around issuing small slips of tickets has long faded. Now a conductor punches a few buttons on a small electronic device and out comes your ticket.

Sixty years after they were introduced, the metal ticket issuing boxes that had been a common sight with BEST’s bus conductors for years are on their way out.

Senior BEST officials said ticket boxes had been replaced with electronic ticket machines in all their routes and used only when there was a glitch in the machines.

“The BEST is moving ahead and the hand-held ticket machines are being used on all routes. The ticket boxes have been kept for back-ups only. Issuing tickets are easier and faster on these machines and it also helps during accounting,” said BEST spokesperson NA Walavalkar.

He said 9,330 electronic ticket machines are in use on buses.
The hand-held devices are light, weighing less than 800 gm and come in a special protective case and have been provided by Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services Ltd. The new machines can record data on how many tickets are sold daily and give an indication on profit and loss-making routes.

Sources said the old metal ticket boxes were introduced in the 1950s on buses to replace mechanical devices operated by a small handle.