National Location Code

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.

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 1 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.

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 removed in March 2007. 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.

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.

Example of the allocation of new codes

In 1998, Brighton was supplied with two wall-mounted touch-screen machines by Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc., 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.

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.

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:

Series (and colour on map)	Geographical Area	Selected Examples	BR Regions
1000-1999	West Coast Main Line (southern section); West Midlands (north of Birmingham); Midland Main Line (southern section); London Marylebone-Aylesbury section of Chiltern line; Cumbrian Coast Line	1127 Birmingham New Street; 1243 Crewe; 1444 London Euston; 1823 Derby	MR
2000-2999	West Coast Main Line (northern section); Merseyside; Greater Manchester; North Wales Coast Line	2118 Carlisle; 2246 Liverpool Lime Street; 2437 Holyhead; 2968 Manchester Piccadilly	MR
3000-3999	Great Western Main Line and associated branches; Chiltern main line; South Wales and Welsh/English border area	3087 London Paddington; 3526 Penzance; 3607 Hereford; 3899 Cardiff Central	WR
4000-4999	Lines in West of England and Wales north of those in "3000" series; ex-Great Western Railway lines in West Midlands	4222 Swansea; 4303 Aberystwyth; 4387 Shrewsbury; 4558 Stratford-upon-Avon	WR
5000-5999	All lines south, southeast and southwest of London	See below	SR
6000-6999	East Coast Main Line (southern section); Great Eastern Main Line; lines in Eastern England; suburban lines north and east of London; Midland Main Line (northern section)	6121 London Kings Cross; 6417 Doncaster; 6691 Sheffield; 6861 Colchester	ER
7000-7999	East Anglia; East Coast Main Line (northern section); associated branch lines in North East England	7022 Cambridge; 7309 Norwich; 7728 Newcastle; 7929 Middlesbrough	ER
8000-8999	North and North East England (east of the Pennines), including most of Yorkshire; Highlands and north of Scotland	8126 Hull; 8263 York; 8487 Leeds; 8976 Aberdeen	ER, ScR
9000-9999	Central and Southern Scotland, including suburban Glasgow and Edinburgh	9039 Dundee; 9328 Edinburgh Waverley; 9555 Stranraer Harbour; 9813 Glasgow Central	ScR

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:

Series	Geographical Area	Selected Examples	Division
5000-5099	Suburban and main-line routes in Kent, mostly those served from London Victoria	5004 Ashford International; 5007 Canterbury West; 5033 Dover Priory; 5064 Bromley South	South Eastern
5100-5199	Suburban and main-line routes in Kent, mostly those served from London Charing Cross/London Bridge	5122 Orpington; 5146 Greenwich; 5148 London Bridge; 5199 Chatham	South Eastern
5200-5299	Secondary routes in Kent and East Sussex (including Tonbridge-Hastings); East Coastway and West Coastway routes in Sussex	5219 Hastings; 5230 Tunbridge Wells; 5268 Brighton; 5279 Worthing	South Eastern, Central
5300-5399	Suburban and main-line routes in South London, Surrey and Sussex	5309 Horsham; 5334 Uckfield; 5355 East Croydon; 5360 Epsom	Central
5400-5499	Suburban and main-line routes in South London, Surrey and Sussex - overlaps completely with 5300 series	5416 Gatwick Airport; 5448 Eastbourne; 5484 Crawley; 5486 East Grinstead	Central
5500-5599	Suburban and main-line routes in Surrey and Hampshire, including Isle of Wight	5520 Basingstoke; 5537 Portsmouth & Southsea; 5578 Wimbledon; 5598 London Waterloo	South Western
5600-5699	Suburban and secondary routes in Surrey and Hampshire	5623 Aldershot; 5631 Guildford; 5672 Windsor & Eton Riverside; 5685 Woking	South Western
5700-5799	Secondary routes and branch lines in southwest England, including certain former Southern Region lines in Western Region territory	5712 Westbury; 5714 Axminster; 5725 Barnstaple; 5756 Exmouth	South Western
5800-5899	Southern end of main-line routes from London Waterloo to southwest England	5838 Yeovil Junction; 5876 Bournemouth; 5883 Poole; 5899 Eastleigh	South Western
5900-5999	Southern end of main-line routes from London Waterloo to southwest England; associated secondary routes and branch lines	5924 Winchester; 5932 Southampton Central; 5961 Dorchester South; 5965 Weymouth	South Western

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. When Coleshill Parkway, on the route between Birmingham and Nuneaton was opened in 2007 it was allocated the code 9882, which relates geographically to Scotland.

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 London Overground and Southern).
• 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 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, it was given code 1429, as it lay on the LMR side of the junction.