Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 14:55 20 Apr 2024
- Three men killed in retail park car crash named
* Some Wales roads to revert to 30mph after backlash
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
20th Apr (1789)
Opening of Sapperton Canal Tunnel

Train RunningCancelled
18:52 London Paddington to Great Malvern
19:19 Carmarthen to Swansea
Short Run
10:03 London Paddington to Penzance
14:48 London Paddington to Carmarthen
15:30 Weymouth to Gloucester
PollsThere are no open or recent polls
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
April 20, 2024, 15:01:46 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[279] Somerset and Dorset Devonshire Tunnel flood
[220] Rail to refuge / Travel to refuge
[109] On reservations, fees and supplements - Interrail
[37] Rail delay compensation payments hit £100 million
[33] Problems with the Night Riviera sleeper - December 2014 onward...
[16] Difficult to argue with e-bike/scooter rules?
 
News: the Great Western Coffee Shop ... keeping you up to date with travel around the South West
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: [1] 2
  Print  
Author Topic: What all the numbers on your ticket actually mean...  (Read 17688 times)
6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2754



View Profile Email
« on: January 09, 2010, 00:10:54 »

Isn't the asterix marked on the ticket next to the station where the ticket was purchased?
Logged
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 17876


I am not railway staff


View Profile Email
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2010, 00:19:49 »

No: I have tickets with an asterisk next to Bath Spa and Melksham - both of which were purchased at Nailsea & Backwell!  Wink

I think the asterisk is just to prevent the addition of other (fraudulent) characters on the ticket?  Grin
Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
TerminalJunkie
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 919



View Profile
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2010, 00:31:35 »

Isn't the asterix marked on the ticket next to the station where the ticket was purchased?

No, it's a security thing to stop you changing a station name (eg Aber to Aberdeen).

Anyway, thanks to Videolan I've managed to get a better picture than bignosemac:


The station is part of the long string of numbers on the right - 2034 is the machine number, 3410 is the station you bought it at (in this case Exeter St Davids) and the final 34 refers to the individual ticket window/retail point.
Logged

Daily Mail and Daily Express readers please click here.
inspector_blakey
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 3574



View Profile
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2010, 02:00:55 »

There seems to have been a software modification recently to STAR. The 10-digit number on the right would formerly have been displayed 2034o3410W34 instead of all bunched up together.

As TJ says, 2034 is the machine number. The "o" symbol was to denote a magnetically encoded ticket that will operate ticket barriers - it was designed to look like the London Underground logo and originated way back in BR (British Rail(ways)) days when LU had more or less the only automatic ticket barriers that passengers were likely to encounter. Surprisingly recently (less than ten years ago) not all tickets were encoded - I have some advance purchase tickets issued from the Wales and West telesales office in 2000 kicking around somewhere. These were issued using APTIS (All Purpose Ticket Issuing System) on the old-style navy blue border "Advance Purchase" ticket stock and are missing the little plimsoll mark.

The four-digit National Location Code (NLC (National Location Code)) of the issuing station is next - the ticket office and TVMs (Ticket Vending Machine) at any given location seem to have different codes, e.g. 3115 for Oxford ticket office but 6254 for Oxford TVMs. The NLC is followed by a letter indicating the former BR region that controlled the issuing station (E for Eastern, H for Scottish, M for London Midland, S for Southern, W for Western). Last came the window number (with apologies to TJ for the repetition!)

Some systems (e.g. Avantix (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains)) have never printed the regional indicator - it doesn't appear on tickets mailed out by thetrainline either; in both these cases it's just replaced by a dash.

There are still machines that issue tickets with the "old style" numbering (including the plimsoll and regional indicator) - one of the fast ticket machines near the old Thames Valley ticket office at Paddington where I collected tickets a couple of weeks ago for example. Although bizarrely on that one the region code was printed as "S".

I will now put my anorak away for the moment...
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40786



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2010, 09:51:29 »

Isn't the asterix marked on the ticket next to the station where the ticket was purchased?

No, it's a security thing to stop you changing a station name (eg Aber to Aberdeen).



It's surprising how many options there would be to do that, too!

In Aber you have Abercynon, Aberdare, Aberdeen, Aberdour, Aberdovey, Abererch, Abergavenny, Abergele & Pensarn, Aberystwyth
In Ascot you have Ascott-under-Wychwood
In Ash you have Ash Vale, Ashburys, Ashchurch for Tewkesbury, Ashfield, Ashford (Surrey), Ashford International, Ashford International (Eurostar), Ashley, Ashtead, Ashton-under-Lyne, Ashurst, Ashurst New Forest, Ashwell & Morden
In Ashford International you have Ashford International (Eurostar)
In Ashurst you have Ashurst New Forest
In Barnes you have Barnes Bridge
In Barry you have Barry Docks, Barry Island, Barry Links
In Battle you have Battlesbridge
In Bedford you have Bedford St Johns
In Bentley you have Bentley (South Yorks)
In Berwick you have Berwick-upon-Tweed
In Bexley you have Bexleyheath
In Bloxwich you have Bloxwich North
In Bolton you have Bolton-on-Dearne
In Bootle you have Bootle New Strand, Bootle Oriel Road
In Braintree you have Braintree Freeport
In Bramley you have Bramley (Hants)
In Bromborough you have Bromborough Rake
In Brondesbury you have Brondesbury Park
In Brough you have Broughty Ferry
In Brundall you have Brundall Gardens
In Burnham you have Burnham-on-Crouch
In Cambridge you have Cambridge Heath
In Carshalton you have Carshalton Beeches
In Castleton you have Castleton Moor
In Catford you have Catford Bridge
In Charing you have Charing Cross (Glasgow)
In Chester you have Chester Road, Chester-le-Street, Chesterfield
In Chorley you have Chorleywood
In Clifton you have Clifton Down
In Colchester you have Colchester Town
In Cowden you have Cowdenbeath
In Cressing you have Cressington
In Dalston you have Dalston Kingsland
In Dawlish you have Dawlish Warren
In Dean you have Dean Lane, Deansgate
In Denham you have Denham Golf Club
In Dent you have Denton
In Derby you have Derby Road
In Dorking you have Dorking Deepdene, Dorking West
In Eccles you have Eccles Road, Eccleston Park
In Edenbridge you have Edenbridge Town
In Epsom you have Epsom Downs
In Hale you have Halesworth, Halewood
In Hampton you have Hampton Court, Hampton Wick, Hampton-in-Arden
In Harringay you have Harringay Green Lanes
In Hatfield you have Hatfield & Stainforth, Hatfield Peverel
In Hawarden you have Hawarden Bridge
In Higham you have Highams Park
In Hove you have Hoveton & Wroxham
In Ince you have Ince & Elton
In Johnston you have Johnstone
In Kentish Town you have Kentish Town West
In Kirkby you have Kirkby Stephen, Kirkby in Ashfield, Kirkby-in-Furness
In Lake you have Lakenheath
In Langley you have Langley Green, Langley Mill
In Lee you have Leeds
In Lelant you have Lelant Saltings
In Llandudno you have Llandudno Junction
In London Waterloo you have London Waterloo East
In Lostock you have Lostock Gralam, Lostock Hall
In Loughborough you have Loughborough Junction
In Luton you have Luton Airport Parkway
In Maesteg you have Maesteg (Ewenny Road)
In Mansfield you have Mansfield Woodhouse
In Matlock you have Matlock Bath
In Melton you have Melton Mowbray
In Meols you have Meols Cop
In Mossley you have Mossley Hill
In New Cross you have New Cross Gate
In Newbury you have Newbury Racecourse
In Orrell you have Orrell Park
In Par you have Parbold, Park Street, Parkstone (Dorset), Parson Street, Partick, Parton
In Pembroke you have Pembroke Dock
In Porth you have Porthmadog
In Preston you have Preston Park, Prestonpans
In Purley you have Purley Oaks
In Reading you have Reading West
In Roche you have Rochester
In Runcorn you have Runcorn East
In Rye you have Rye House
In St Albans you have St Albans Abbey
In Stamford you have Stamford Hill
In Stone you have Stone Crossing, Stonebridge Park, Stonegate, Stonehaven, Stonehouse, Stoneleigh
In Streatham you have Streatham Common, Streatham Hill
In Sudbury you have Sudbury & Harrow Road, Sudbury Hill Harrow
In Sway you have Swaythling
In Sydenham you have Sydenham Hill
In Trefforest you have Trefforest Estate
In Ware you have Wareham
In Warwick you have Warwick Parkway
In Welling you have Wellingborough, Wellington (Shropshire)
In Wem you have Wembley Central, Wembley Stadium, Wemyss Bay
In West Ham you have West Hampstead, West Hampstead Thameslink
In West Hampstead you have West Hampstead Thameslink
In Whyteleafe you have Whyteleafe South
In Wick you have Wickford, Wickham Market
In Wimbledon you have Wimbledon Chase
In Winnersh you have Winnersh Triangle
In Woking you have Wokingham
In Wool you have Woolston, Woolwich Arsenal, Woolwich Dockyard
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
brompton rail
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 262



View Profile
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2010, 10:22:54 »

Wow! Grahame, who can argue with that excellent list. Is the snow that deep that you can't get out? (I jest!)
Logged
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40786



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2010, 13:26:21 »

Wow! Grahame, who can argue with that excellent list. Is the snow that deep that you can't get out? (I jest!)

I particularly liked the idea of amending a ticket from Barry Docks to Barry into a ticket from Barry Docks to Barry Links ... although of course the only reason I can post this (<i>also in jest</i>) is that we're not publicising an open loophole, but one that has been firmly closed for years.   My list came for a Perl program that took 5 minutes to modify from the one that I wrote over Christmas and let TJ find a humbug in Mussleburgh!
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40786



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2010, 18:10:13 »

... The four-digit National Location Code (NLC (National Location Code)) of the issuing station is next - the ticket office and TVMs (Ticket Vending Machine) at any given location seem to have different codes, e.g. 3115 for Oxford ticket office....

You inspired me to look these up ... and it turns out there are even more code.  I've started a separate thread at
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6078.0
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
RichieG
Jr. Member
**
Posts: 28


Remembering Fairy Chapmane-Graham


View Profile
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2010, 22:37:36 »

One thing that has always confused me on rail tickets is the fact that there is an 'ADULT' and 'CHILD' section, but these can only (or seem to be only) ONE or NIL. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it say - printed - 'CHILD' or ADULT' instead? They could also put some of the railcard things there too.

Like I say, that's always confused me, right from when I was a littleun and was going round on the rails with my mum - why we had tickets each when they could have 'ONE' under both columns and save paper...

Did they - or do they - ever have the ability to put more than one person on one ticket?

(Incidentally, the ticket shown above is probably more pointless than my EXD» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) to EXC return ticket that I bought a while ago for platform access at EXD to take photos, then decided that as I bought the ticket I might as well use it so hopped on a Pacer to EXC (where my ticket was checked even before the train left the station!) and was on a SWT (South West Trains) back down the hill afterwards... pointless, but amusing Smiley)
Logged
Brucey
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2260


View Profile WWW
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2010, 07:34:07 »

One thing that has always confused me on rail tickets is the fact that there is an 'ADULT' and 'CHILD' section, but these can only (or seem to be only) ONE or NIL. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it say - printed - 'CHILD' or ADULT' instead? They could also put some of the railcard things there too.

Like I say, that's always confused me, right from when I was a littleun and was going round on the rails with my mum - why we had tickets each when they could have 'ONE' under both columns and save paper...

Did they - or do they - ever have the ability to put more than one person on one ticket?
I believe that APTIS (All Purpose Ticket Issuing System) had the ability is issue tickets for more than one person.  The number would be in words up to ten, then it would be numerical after ten 12**, 14** etc.  I'm not sure if modern systems have this ability as I'm always given millions of bits of paper everytime I buy a ticket for a group.
Logged
Tim
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 2738


View Profile
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2010, 09:18:58 »

One thing that has always confused me on rail tickets is the fact that there is an 'ADULT' and 'CHILD' section, but these can only (or seem to be only) ONE or NIL. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it say - printed - 'CHILD' or ADULT' instead? They could also put some of the railcard things there too.

Like I say, that's always confused me, right from when I was a littleun and was going round on the rails with my mum - why we had tickets each when they could have 'ONE' under both columns and save paper...

Did they - or do they - ever have the ability to put more than one person on one ticket?

(Incidentally, the ticket shown above is probably more pointless than my EXD» (Exeter St Davids - next trains) to EXC return ticket that I bought a while ago for platform access at EXD to take photos, then decided that as I bought the ticket I might as well use it so hopped on a Pacer to EXC (where my ticket was checked even before the train left the station!) and was on a SWT (South West Trains) back down the hill afterwards... pointless, but amusing Smiley)

My wife and I brought a ticket on board a Scotrail train from Newtonmore to Hyndland.  After checking we were travelling together, the Guard handed me a single piece of card with "two" under "adult".

I don't know if this was the Guard's usual habbit or if he was runnign short of ticket stock.

I also seem to recall a six-form trip I took with 40 other kids from my school.  IIRC (if I recall/remember/read correctly), we were all travelling on 4 or 5 tickets held by the teachers.

It can be a useful option but presumably one of the reasons it isn't used very much is that it is not very compatible with automatic ticket gates (although one would like to think that gates will not retain such tickets so at least the second passenegr can pass through the manual gate?). 
Logged
devon_metro
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 5175



View Profile
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2010, 14:17:55 »

One thing that has always confused me on rail tickets is the fact that there is an 'ADULT' and 'CHILD' section, but these can only (or seem to be only) ONE or NIL. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it say - printed - 'CHILD' or ADULT' instead? They could also put some of the railcard things there too.



There are differences dependant on where you buy your tickets from, ie. Ticket office or ticket machine.

Tickets from the ticket machine display both the Adult and Child sections, however from more modern ticket issuing facilities eg at EXD» (Exeter St Davids - next trains), it will display Adult One .
Logged
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18918



View Profile
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2010, 14:29:15 »

You're right d_m. Spot the difference: (ignore the Y-P, conductor pressed wrong button on Avantix (Ticket Issuing System used on board trains)!)

Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40786



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2010, 22:13:07 »


... I don't know if this was the Guard's usual habbit or if he was runnign short of ticket stock ....

[snip]

It can be a useful option but presumably one of the reasons it isn't used very much is that it is not very compatible with automatic ticket gates (although one would like to think that gates will not retain such tickets so at least the second passenegr can pass through the manual gate?). 



Our ticket from today.   Guard just smiled when I asked if he was short on ticket stock / reminded me that we had to all travel together (we would have to anyway - only one practical return train  Embarrassed ) and because we had a dog with us we went through the manual gate at Oxford so I can't answer onteh barrier question.    But I've added the picture / post to show that multiple passenger tickets ARE around and issues, currently, in these parts too.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
Chris from Nailsea
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 17876


I am not railway staff


View Profile Email
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2010, 22:34:21 »

On Group Save tickets at least, this appears to be common practice:



Wink
Logged

William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: [1] 2
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page