Autofare ticketing WMT

[craighu]

Evening all
Having recently bought a roll of old Autofare WM Travel tickets on eBay, I started thinking about when the last bus in the WMT fleet was converted to Wayfarer. I think by 1990, possibly early 1991, the Autofare machines were all gone. I know the Lynxes and Mk2a Metrobuses were all delivered with Autofares.
Also, I remember Perry Barr having Wayfarers much earlier than the rest of the garages, presumably it was trialled there before full rollout. Even the Ailsas had these tickets and they were gone by 1987.
Any thoughts or clarifications much appreciated.
Cheers

[Stuharris 6360]

Autofare was the basic pay as you enter system, no change given , instead a very basic small square ticket was given out.

Sadly though it had it's limitations, if you requested a fare that wasn't available, you ended up with more than one ticket, or sometimes a driver would give you a ticket with the nearest value available. eg: Stourbridge to Birmingham half fare was 8p, but there was no 8p ticket so you needed a 5p and 3p tickeet. However quite often a driver would issue a 7p ticket.

Thaank goodness when the Wayfarers appeared.

[Isle of Stroma]

Thaank goodness when the Wayfarers appeared.

Conversely, it minimised the drivers workload, just press the relevant button on the row, no faffing around with menu's etc. If you wanted a Travelcard etc, you got one from your local travel centre or supplier etc. We didn't need nursemaiding with mobile computers in them days!

I'm smiling wryly at checking to see if my ticket had the 'fold' perforation at the top, & recalling the sound the ticket machine made when aligning the characters, then spooling & cutting - & the plastic 'addition' to the slot to stop the ticket falling onto the floor!

[dmc5007]

I loved the Setright machines they had on Midland Red West, they seem to last a long time and were so mysterious with the nobs and dials.  Not sure when they were replaced but it must have been into the mid 90's.

I'm guessing the cash boxes they have on NXWM buses must date back yo the PTE days, the technology doesn't seem to have changed much.

[Walsall1955]

Here are some details of the 1973 version of Autofare (fare values represented by a code):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/4816514740/
Metrobus 2436 may have been the first bus to receive "Autofare 3" (fare represented as value paid) here are the details (1982):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/walsall1955/4831687009/