National Location Code

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A map of England, Wales and Scotland showing the approximate boundaries of each NLC "zone", as described in the accompanying table.

In the context of the ticketing system of the British railway network, a National Location Code (NLC) is a four-digit code allocated to every railway station and railway ticket issuing point in Great Britain. NLCs are used in the issue of tickets, and for accounting purposes. These four-digit codes, used in respect of ticket issuing, are a subset of the full array of NLCs originally created by British Rail, which are based on four "main" digits plus two supplementary digits.

[edit] Introduction by British Rail

NLCs were introduced as a method of accounting for and attributing costs and revenue to railway assets. This quotation is taken from the 14th Edition (January 1987) of the definitive National Location Code listing book, published by the British Railways Board:

"With the widespread use of computers within British Railways and the advent of national computer systems for dealing with payroll compilation, stores recording and accounting, wagon control, traffic data, revenue and expenditure accounting, market and traffic surveys etc., the need for a standard location code became increasingly important. In order to meet this need, the Regions were asked in November 1966 to revise and update the publication then known as the Terminals and Mileage Gazetteer Code. At the same time the opportunity was taken to include all sidings, yards, depots, offices, administrative centres, etc., where there is 'railway' activity. [...] A file was developed based on a six-digit code known as the British Railways National Location Code. This was [first] published on 1st January 1968."

Each six-digit code is split into two parts: the first four digits identify the location of the asset or cost centre, and the final two give more information about the specific asset. In all cases, the "base" location (including all stations and ticket-issuing locations) has 00 after the first four digits; other two-digit combinations signify other types of asset, with the first four digits indicating the "base" location to which they relate. As described above, in a ticket issuing context, only the first four digits (excluding the 00) are used. Some examples:

• 852400 is the NLC of Hebden Bridge as a location, asset base and cost centre on the rail network.
• 852405 is the NLC of the Up Refuge Siding outside Hebden Bridge station.
• 8524 is shown on tickets issued at Hebden Bridge station.

• 548400 is the NLC of Crawley as a location, asset base and cost centre on the rail network.
• 548461 is the NLC of the (now disused) signalbox controlling the points and level crossings there
• 548465 is the NLC of the former parcels delivery agency at the station
• 5484 is shown on tickets issued at Crawley ticket office.
  • Furthermore, an additional code, 548500, is allocated to Crawley New Yard, a goods facility north of nearby Three Bridges station. It had additional codes allocated to it based on the various users of the yard, such as the National Coal Board (which maintained a coal concentration depot there until 1981) and the former Ready Mixed Concrete company.

[edit] Consequence for ticketing systems

In the 1960s and 1970s, there were various ticket issuing systems in use throughout the British Rail network, some quite localised. Some of these had simple numerical code structures covering a limited number of stations in the relevant area, but there was no universal coding system to identify stations until the NLC was introduced. NLCs began to appear on certain types of ticket (such as the Southern Region mainstay, the NCR21) almost immediately.

With the introduction of the fully computerised INTIS (Intermediate Ticket Issuing System) in the early 1980s, the four-digit version of the NLC became fully established. INTIS tickets were partly pre-printed, and the station name printed on the ticket featured the NLC next to it. Also, the machine printed the codes of the "origin" and "destination" stations on the top line of the ticket.

INTIS was superseded by APTIS in 1986; the latter became the railway network's universal ticket office-based system for the next 15-20 years, with the last APTIS machines currently being removed. APTIS tickets had the NLC of the station of issue printed on their second line, irrespective of whether the journey started there - so for example, a ticket issued at Brighton (NLC 5268) for a journey from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria would display 5268.

An NLC covered the whole station and all of its associated accounting activities; it would be featured on everything from tickets issued from self-service (passenger-operated) ticket machines to ticket office staff wage slips. However, where stations on the same site needed to be treated as separate entities, they could be allocated different codes. When London Waterloo's "East" platforms (serving South Eastern Division destinations) began in the late 1980s to be considered as a separate station from the main London Waterloo, for example, its self-service machines - previously allocated NLC 5598, in common with the main station - got their own code, 5158. Revenue could then be apportioned correctly to the relevant Division, and, after privatisation, the correct Train Operating Company.

[edit] The modern era

After the railway network was privatised in the mid-1990s, there was a need for additional NLCs to be created and allocated in various cases:

• The South West Trains Train Operating Company opened Travel Centres at many of its larger stations, for booking of more complex journeys, and wanted each one to have a different code from that of the station itself - mostly in order to differentiate revenue derived from Travel Centre bookings (which are typically more complex and lengthy but often of high monetary value). Other TOCs did this to a lesser extent as well.
• Many TOCs began to operate Telesales facilities and, later, online booking facilities.
• As new types of ticket issuing system began to be rolled out to replace APTIS and the less widespread "Quickfare" self-service machines, TOCs began to use different codes to distinguish between revenue derived from ticket office-based systems and that derived from self-service positions. Now that "New Generation" systems are in place throughout the National Rail network, the following distinction is universally found:
  • Ticket office-based systems use the station's original NLC, allocated to it in the 1960s;
  • Self-service machines use a new NLC which may have been allocated at any time since privatisation and which bears no relation to the original geographical boundaries.

[edit] Example of the allocation of new codes

In 1998, Brighton was supplied with two wall-mounted touch-screen machines by Cubic Transportation Systems, issuing a limited range of tickets by credit card only; code 8882 was given to these. Subsequently, these (and the erstwhile Quickfare machines) were replaced by a set of six "FASTticket" touch-screen machines manufactured by Shere Ltd.; these bore NLC 8882 as well, whereas the ticket office machines ("SMART Terminal", again supplied by Shere Ltd.) used the station's original code, 5268.

[edit] Special NLCs

As noted above, any location to which railway revenue or expenditure can be attributed was coded in the 1960s (or later, if it came into existence subsequently). Therefore, codes have always been allocated to any location, be it fixed or mobile, that can issue tickets. Also, any location that can have a ticket issued to it for a journey from a National Rail station will have a code. Some examples are:

• London Underground stations: codes run upwards from 0500, allocated alphabetically by station name. Anomalies have since arisen where stations have opened or changed their name.
• In the same way, Docklands Light Railway stops, stations on the Northern Ireland Railways network and stations in the Republic of Ireland served by the Iarnród Éireann network have codes in the 0000-series.
• Portable machines used by on-train staff. Originally the PORTIS (Portable Ticket Issuing System), then superseded by SPORTIS (Super-PORTIS) and now the PDA-based "Avantix Mobile". NLCs were allocated to depots and conductors' bases from which machines were sent out each day.
• Rail Appointed Travel Agencies.
• Back-office machines used at stations or in railway offices for accounting purposes.
• Agencies used by local authorities to issue concessionary passes, season tickets and similar.
• "Extra" issuing points at stations: for example, excess fares windows, positions used only for season ticket renewals or business/executive travel tickets.
• Machines in airport terminals.
• Standalone travel centres away from stations, such as One Stop Travel in Brighton city centre (NLC 3644, now changed to 2791) and the former Victoria Street Travel Centre in London (NLC 6127).
• Station groups. These pseudo-locations were given codes in the 0200 and 0400 ranges.

[edit] Original allocation of NLCs

When British Railways was created in 1948, it was split on a geographical basis into six operating regions; these became five in the 1960s (Eastern, London Midland, Western, Southern and Scottish). The distribution of NLCs broadly followed this pattern. The following table demonstrates this:

[edit] NLCs in the Southern Region

The British Rail Southern Region contained hundreds of stations, and was further divided into three subdivisions: South Eastern, Central and South Western. These were based on the three pre-Grouping companies which came together to form the Southern Region at nationalisation. NLCs were allocated (approximately) following these boundaries, as follows:

[edit] Anomalies

Since privatisation, the need for new codes has grown so much that they have largely stopped being allocated on a geographical basis. This is especially true where additional codes are being given to an existing station, as noted above. Where a brand new station is opened and given a geographically "correct" code, it is usually because the station had been planned for some time and a gap was left in the appropriate section of codes for it to be added. An example is Lea Green (NLC 2339), which was proposed for many years (under the name "Marshalls Cross") before being opened in 2000. Sometimes, as at Chandler's Ford, a station is reopened with its original code after being closed.

Some quirks have always existed, however:

• Kensington Olympia station was given code 3092 as it was considered part of the Western Region at the time, although it was not served by any scheduled trains originating from that region, and in fact only had a tenuous physical connection to it (the little-used North Pole Junction). It later passed into Southern Region control, at a time when the only services using the station were peak-hour shuttle trains from Clapham Junction, before passing to the Midland Region before privatisation when a Clapham Junction-Willesden Junction service began (now operated by Silverlink).
• Skipton formed the boundary between the LMR and ER, and so could have been given a 2000-series or an 8000-series code. Although most of its services originated from the ER, it was given code 2728.
• The North London Line (Richmond-Stratford; Richmond-North Woolwich until December 2006) crosses several regions. The first two stations, Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury, were given 5500-series codes to match Richmond. Once the parallel London Underground District Line was left behind, LMR territory was entered, with 1000-series codes. Because the LMR originally had a terminus at Broad Street in the City of London (closed 1986), the 1000-series continued until the original junction where the branch line to Broad Street left the North London Line itself; the junction (and its now closed station, Dalston Junction) formed the boundary between the LMR and the ER, with 6000-series codes continuing for the rest of the route. When a new station opened at Dalston Kingsland to replace the closed Dalston Junction, it was given code 1429, as it lay on the LMR side of the junction.