In the ticketing system of the British rail network, tickets are normally issued to and from individual stations. In some instances, when there is more than one station in a town or other locality—especially where these are on different routes—it may be desirable for passengers to be able to travel to one station and back from another, or more generally to be able to choose which of the stations they wish to travel to. To accommodate this requirement, British Rail introduced a series of station groups: notional "common locations" to which tickets from stations outside that group would be issued.

For example, Penge in South London has two stations: Penge East and Penge West. The former is served by trains from London Victoria to Orpington; the latter is on the route from London Bridge to West Croydon. For a traveller arriving at, for example, a London terminal station and intending to go to Penge, it makes little difference which route is chosen. Both stations are close together and serve the same area. Therefore, a ticket issued specifically to one of the Penge stations would be unduly restrictive—it would remove the opportunity to travel by a choice of equally convenient routes. A notional "Penge group" solves this problem: a ticket issued in this way would be interavailable.[1]

The concept is explained in the National Fares Manuals (NFMs) issued approximately three times per year by the British Railways Board (and, since privatisation, by the Association of Train Operating Companies) to stations, Rail Appointed Travel Agents and other ticket issuing authorities: "Fares for certain ... cities and towns are shown to and from a notional common station[.] All fares are quoted and all tickets should be issued to and from [these notional group] stations except for local journeys between two stations in the same group. Tickets issued to and from these [notional group] stations are valid to or from any of their associated stations, subject to normal route availability."[2]

Terminology and appearance on tickets

An APTIS ticket issued for travel between the "Bedford Group" and the "Croydon Group", showing the pre-privatisation designations BEDFORD BR and CROYDON BR.
A Shere SMART ticket issued for the same journey, showing the post-privatisation designations BEDFORD STATIONS and CROYDON STATIONS.

These "locations" had to be shown in a standard, easily identifiable way on tickets. The method chosen by the British Railways Board was as follows:

  • Take the name of the actual location where the stations are: for Penge East and Penge West, PENGE.
  • Add the suffix BR to this: PENGE BR.

Each station group was also allocated its own National Location Code (NLC)—a four-digit code used for accounting and to attribute revenue to locations on the railway network. Most station group codes were between 0250 and 0500. This NLC appeared on PORTIS/SPORTIS tickets, which by convention always showed the "origin" and "destination" NLCs as well as the code of the issuing point; but tickets from the APTIS system and its replacements always showed the NLC of the actual station of issue, even where a ticket was issued from a "station group" (except for some short-lived anomalies).[3][4]

After privatisation, the designation "BR" was no longer appropriate, although having been in use for more than 10 years it had become a convenient shorthand device for referring to the station groups concept in general (for example, National Fares Manuals continued to use the term "BR Stations").[2] A new designation had to be created which still took up little space on a ticket (location names are restricted to 16 characters on most ticket issuing systems)[5] and which still conveyed a notion of interavailability.

The solution, introduced gradually from November 1997 and uploaded to all ticket issuing systems by January 1998, was for BR to be changed to STNS or STATIONS as appropriate:

  • STNS if the location name was between 8 and 11 characters in length: for example, LIVERPOOL BR became LIVERPOOL STNS.
  • STATIONS if the location name was 7 characters or fewer: for example, DORKING BR became DORKING STATIONS.[6][7]

There were some deviations from this standard:

  • As GAINSBOROUGH is 12 characters in length, a meaningful abbreviation to signify the station grouping could not be created. As a result the Gainsborough group is simply shown as GAINSBOROUGH.
  • As GLASGOW STATIONS could have been mistakenly interpreted by passengers as referring to the whole of the Glasgow suburban rail network, it was used only briefly before being changed in mid-April 1998 to GLASGOW CEN/QST, specifically representing Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street stations.[8]

Additionally, the London group is treated as a special case. It was created in April 1970 by BR's Southern Region as a grouping of their nine terminal stations named LONDON S.R., before being expanded in May 1983 to include all BR terminals under the name LONDON BR, and then LONDON BRIT RAIL from January 1989 until 1997. Rather than receiving the standard new name of LONDON STATIONS it was referred to simply as LONDON before becoming LONDON TERMINALS in April 1998, even though four of the eighteen stations included in the group are not technically termini.

Existing groups

As of January 2017, 38 station groups (including the London group) are known to exist.[9] The table shows the NLC allocated to each group, the pre- and post-privatisation renderings of the group name, and the stations included within it.

Current Name Former Name NLC Stations Included Notes Refs
BEDFORD STATIONS BEDFORD BR 0410 Bedford, Bedford St Johns
BICESTER NTH/VIL — 7934 Bicester North, Bicester Village The most recently created group, dating from 28 July 2015 [10]
BIRMINGHAM STNS BIRMINGHAM BR 0418 Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Snow Hill Birmingham Snow Hill was included from January 1988 following the reopening of the station. [11]
BOOTLE STATIONS — 1780 Bootle New Strand, Bootle Oriel Road Introduced 26 September 1999. [12]
BRADFORD YK STNS BRADFORD YKS BR 0424 Bradford Forster Square, Bradford Interchange
CANTERBURY STNS CANTERBURY BR 0428 Canterbury East, Canterbury West
CATFORD STATIONS CATFORD BR 0258 Catford, Catford Bridge
COLCHESTER STNS COLCHESTER BR 0254 Colchester, Colchester Town Introduced in May 1991. [13]
CROYDON STATIONS CROYDON BR 0449 East Croydon, West Croydon Tickets are valid to and from South Croydon as well, but tickets issued at South Croydon show that name.
DORCHESTER STNS DORCHESTER BR 0429 Dorchester South, Dorchester West
DORKING STATIONS DORKING BR 0416 Dorking, Dorking Deepdene, Dorking West
EDENBRIDGE STNS EDENBRIDGE BR 0259 Edenbridge, Edenbridge Town
ENFIELD STATIONS ENFIELD BR 0263 Enfield Chase, Enfield Town Enfield Lock has never been included.
FALKIRK STATIONS FALKIRK BR 0431 Falkirk Grahamston, Falkirk High
FARNBOROUGH STNS FARNBOROUGH BR 0260 Farnborough (Main), Farnborough North
FOLKESTONE STNS FOLKESTONE BR 0432 Folkestone Central, Folkestone West Folkestone Harbour was included until closure in 2001.
GAINSBOROUGH GAINSBOROUGH BR 0415 Gainsborough Central, Gainsborough Lea Road
GLASGOW CEN/QST GLASGOW BR 0433 Glasgow Central, Glasgow Queen Street Occasionally seen as GLASGOW STATIONS in 1998; officially renamed GLASGOW CEN/QST from 27 September 1998. [8][14]
HELENSBURGH STNS HELENSBURGH BR 0404 Helensburgh Central, Helensburgh Upper
HERTFORD STNS HERTFORD BR 0413 Hertford East, Hertford North
LIVERPOOL STNS LIVERPOOL BR 0435 Liverpool Central, Liverpool James Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Moorfields
LONDON TERMINALS LONDON BR 1072 Blackfriars, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, City Thameslink, Euston, Fenchurch Street, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Marylebone, Moorgate, Old Street, Paddington, St Pancras, Vauxhall, Victoria, Waterloo, Waterloo East
LONDON THAMESLINK — 4452 Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Euston, London Bridge, St Pancras, Farringdon, Kentish Town, Elephant & Castle[15]
MAIDSTONE STNS MAIDSTONE BR 0437 Maidstone Barracks, Maidstone East, Maidstone West
MANCHESTER STNS MANCHESTER BR 0438 Deansgate, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Victoria Deansgate and Salford Central were included in the group until January 1989. By 2005, Deansgate was included again. MANCHESTER CTLZ includes the same stations and also Manchester Metrolink Central Zone tram stations. [16][17]
NEWARK STATIONS NEWARK BR 0441 Newark Castle, Newark North Gate
PENGE STATIONS PENGE BR 0262 Penge East, Penge West
PONTEFRACT STNS PONTEFRACT BR 0268 Pontefract Baghill, Pontefract Monkhill Pontefract Tanshelf was included in the group from September 1997, but by 2005 was no longer included. [18][19]
PORTSMOUTH STNS PORTSMOUTH BR 0440 Portsmouth & Southsea, Portsmouth Harbour Fratton was included in the group until October 1988. [20]
READING STATIONS READING BR 0403 Reading, Reading West Tilehurst was included in the group until October 1988. [20]
SOUTHEND STNS SOUTHEND BR 0411 Southend Central, Southend Victoria Southend East is no longer included in this group. [10]
THORNE STATIONS THORNE BR 0271 Thorne North, Thorne South
TILBURY STATIONS TILBURY BR 7468 Tilbury Riverside, Tilbury Town Introduced in January 1993. East Tilbury has never been included. Tilbury Riverside closed to rail services in 1993, but c2c provide a minibus service between Tilbury Town and the former station to provide a connection with the ferry to Gravesend.
TYNDRUM STATIONS TYNDRUM BR 0443 Tyndrum Lower, Upper Tyndrum [21]
WAKEFIELD STNS WAKEFIELD BR 0444 Wakefield Kirkgate, Wakefield Westgate
WARRINGTON STNS WARRINGTON BR 0445 Warrington Bank Quay, Warrington Central
W HAMPSTEAD STNS WEST HAMPSTD BR 0265 West Hampstead, West Hampstead Thameslink
WIGAN STATIONS WIGAN BR 0446 Wigan North Western, Wigan Wallgate
WORCESTER STNS WORCESTER BR 0447 Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill Droitwich Spa was included in the group until October 1988. [20]

Defunct groups

The following table contains groups which have been used at some time between 1985 and the present, but which are not currently in use.

Name NLC Active From Withdrawn From Stations Included Notes Refs
ARDROSSAN BR 0423 January 1989 Ardrossan Harbour, Ardrossan South Beach, Ardrossan Town Ardrossan Town reopened in 1987 and was included in the group from May 1988. [16][22]
BIRKENHEAD BR 0266 May 1994 Birkenhead Central, Birkenhead Hamilton Square, Birkenhead Park [23]
BLACKPOOL BR 0426 May 1994 Blackpool North, Blackpool South Blackpool Pleasure Beach was included in the group during the period of validity of NFM 39 (May 1988 to October 1988). [22][23]
BRIGHTON BR 0257 January 1989 Aldrington, Brighton, Hove, London Road (Brighton), Moulsecoomb, Preston Park [16]
BRISTOL BR 0400 January 1989 Bedminster, Bristol Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Filton, Keynsham, Lawrence Hill, Parson Street, Stapleton Road "Filton" refers to the original Filton station, which was subsequently closed and replaced by Filton Abbey Wood nearby. [16]
BURNLEY BR 0427 May 1994 Burnley Barracks, Burnley Central, Burnley Manchester Road Rose Grove was included in the group until January 1989. [16][23]
CARDIFF BR 0401 January 1995 Cardiff Bute Road, Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street Cardiff Bute Road was subsequently renamed Cardiff Bay. Cathays was included in the group until January 1989. [16][24]
DOVER BR 0414 January 1995 Dover Priory, Dover Western Docks [24]
EDINBURGH BR 0255 Edinburgh Waverley, Haymarket
EXETER BR 0430 May 1992 Exeter Central, Exeter St Davids, Exeter St Thomas St James Park was included in the group until NFM 41 (January 1989). [16][25]
GREENOCK BR 0434 January 1989 Greenock Central, Greenock West [16]
GUILDFORD BR 0256 Guildford, London Road (Guildford)
HAMILTON BR 0405 January 1989 Hamilton Central, Hamilton West [16]
HARTFORD BR 0267 Greenbank, Hartford
HILLINGTON BR 0406 January 1989 Hillington East, Hillington West [16]
LICHFIELD BR 0399 May 1989 September 1989 Lichfield City, Lichfield Trent Valley This grouping was introduced in NFM 42 (May 1989), but was withdrawn at the next fares change because of the difficulty in allocating revenue correctly between the InterCity and Regional Railways sectors. [26][27]
LINCOLN BR May 1985 Lincoln Central, Lincoln St. Marks The group NLC is unknown. "Withdrawn from" date is the closure date of Lincoln St. Marks station.
LYMINGTON BR 0436 May 1989 Lymington Pier, Lymington Town
NEWBURY BR 0498 Newbury, Newbury Racecourse
NEWHAVEN BR 0439 October 1988 Newhaven Harbour, Newhaven Marine, Newhaven Town Newhaven Marine station was in limited use for ferry passengers only. [20]
NEW MILLS BR 0412 New Mills Central, New Mills Newtown
PLYMOUTH BR 0402 January 1989 Devonport, Dockyard, Keyham, Plymouth, St Budeaux Ferry Road, St Budeaux Victoria Road [16]
ROTHERHAM BR 0270 11 May 1987 3 October 1988 Rotherham Central, Rotherham Masborough The dates are, respectively, the opening date of Rotherham Central and the closing date of Rotherham Masborough.
RYDE BR 0272 May 1988 January 1989 Ryde Esplanade, Ryde St John's Road Ryde Pier Head was not included. [22][16]
ST HELENS BR 0264 October 1988 St Helens Junction, St Helens Shaw Street St Helens Shaw Street was subsequently renamed St Helens Central. [20]
STREATHAM BR 0261 January 1989 Streatham, Streatham Common, Streatham Hill [16]
TUNBDGE WELLS BR 0442 6 July 1985 Tunbridge Wells Central, Tunbridge Wells West Tunbridge Wells Central was subsequently renamed Tunbridge Wells. "Withdrawn from" date is the closure date of Tunbridge Wells West station.
WORTHING BR 0499 East Worthing, West Worthing, Worthing
WREXHAM BR 0417 May 1994 Wrexham Central, Wrexham General Sometimes shown as WREXHAM CLWYD BR. [23]
YEOVIL BR 0448 Yeovil Junction, Yeovil Pen Mill


The London group

The status of individual stations within groups

The station group concept only applied to point-to-point travel tickets and tickets directly related to these, such as Season Tickets and Excess Tickets. Other types of ticket issued at a station within a group would show the name of the station itself - selected examples are:

  • One Day Travelcards in the London area
  • Platform Tickets
  • Car Park Tickets
  • Rail Rovers and Rangers

Also, for a ticket issued for travel between one station in a group and another, the individual stations' names are shown. This only has practical relevance in situations where group stations are easily accessible from each other - for example, the Liverpool group, where all four stations can be reached directly from each of the others.

In other countries

Station groupings are also used on transport networks in other countries, though not necessarily to the same extent as in the UK.

Australia

Tickets issued by Victorian regional train and coach operator V/Line for travel to Melbourne city are issued to the group MELBOURNE Z1+2, indicating Myki Zones 1 and 2, and therefore including all stations on the Melbourne suburban rail network as well as all bus and tram services within those zones.[28]

Germany

Rail tickets in Germany can be issued to station groups in many cities, referred to as Zielbahnhöfe mit tariflicher Gleichstellung (in effect, "destination stations with equal fares"), so long as the total travel distance for the ticket is greater than the threshold set for each city.[29] For example, the BERLIN group includes all main-line and S-Bahn stations on and within the Berlin Ringbahn,[29] and has a threshold distance of 100 kilometres (62 mi).[30]

References

  1. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (495): 142. April 2005. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. 1 2 NFM 64. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. September 1996. Section A5.
  3. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (512): 333. September 2006. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (513): 387. October 2006. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ Oakden, Carol (11 February 2004). "RJIS Datafeeds Interface Specification for Fares and Associated Data" (PDF). Fujitsu Services Ltd/Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC Ltd). p. 63. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  6. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (408): 22–23. January 1998. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (409): 59. February 1998. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. 1 2 Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (413): 218. June 1998. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ "10/01/2017 - Current Fares Feed". rail Delivery Group. 10 January 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  10. 1 2 Fares Feed dated 10 January 2017
  11. ↑ NFM 38. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. January 1988. Section A.
  12. ↑ Journal of the Transport Ticket Society. Kemsing: The Transport Ticket Society (430): 448. November 1999. ISSN 0144-347X. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑ NFM 48. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. May 1991. Section A.
  14. ↑ NFM 70. National Fares Manuals. London: Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC Ltd). September 1998. Section A.
  15. ↑ National Rail Enquiries - London
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 NFM 41. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. January 1989. Section A.
  17. ↑ "Office of Rail Regulation: Station Usage (2005–2006)" (XLS). Office of Rail Regulation. 2006. Row 660.
  18. ↑ NFM 67. National Fares Manuals. London: Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC Ltd). September 1997. Section A.
  19. ↑ "Office of Rail Regulation: Station Usage (2005–2006)" (XLS). Office of Rail Regulation. 2006. Row 1774.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 NFM 40. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. October 1988. Section A.
  21. ↑ NFM 53. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. January 1993. Section A.
  22. 1 2 3 NFM 39. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. May 1988. Section A.
  23. 1 2 3 4 NFM 57. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. May 1994. Section A.
  24. 1 2 NFM 59. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. January 1995. Section A.
  25. ↑ NFM 51. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. May 1992. Section A.
  26. ↑ NFM 42. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. May 1989. Section A.
  27. ↑ NFM 43. National Fares Manuals. London: British Railways Board. September 1989. Section A.
  28. ↑ Victorian Fares and Ticketing Manual (PDF) (2019 ed.). Melbourne: Public Transport Development Authority. p. 112 (in work p. 122).
  29. 1 2 "Was ist unter der tariflichen Gleichstellung zu verstehen und ist diese auch bei Sparpreis-Tickets gültig?" [What is meant by tariff equality, and does this also apply to saver-fare tickets?] (in German). Frankfurt am Main: DB Fernverkehr AG. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  30. ↑ "Gleichstellungen" (PDF). Entfernungszeiger zur Preisliste des Deutschlandtarif (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Deutschlandtarifverbund GmbH. 11 December 2022. pp. 2–7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 April 2023.
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