A Universal Ticket Transport (UTT) 10, 150 may be configured to read from and write to many types of magnetically encoded tickets 20 currently used in fare collection systems. The UTT 10, 150 includes a mechanical insertion interface and automated movement along a transport path 18 for tickets 20 of varying thicknesses that are presented at a range of different angles 40, 42 into and exiting from the UTT 10, 150. The UTT 10, 150 includes a mechanical assembly 156, 158 which may be rotated, and the belts 22, 24, 152, 154 and rollers 30, 32, 34, 36 reconfigured, to accommodate tickets 20 having top-face or bottom face magnetic stripes. The belt subassemblies A, C and the magnetic head subassembly B are configurable across a width W of the UTT 10, 150 to process tickets 20 having magnetic stripes which are offset from a center line 86. The UTT 10, 150 includes a control processor 200 having analog to digital interfaces 216 and control logic 202, 204 for operating the transport mechanisms 212 locally and communicating data through a serial interface 220 to a host system 222.