National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services previously provided by the British Railways Board, from 1965 using the brand name British Rail. Northern Ireland, which is bordered by the Republic of Ireland, has a different system. National Rail services share a ticketing structure and inter-availability that generally do not extend to services which were not part of British Rail.
Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom.
Chiltern Railways is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains.
West Ealing railway station is on the Great Western Main Line in Ealing, situated in west London. It is 6 miles 46 chains (10.6 km) down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Ealing Broadway to the east and Hanwell to the west. Its three-letter station code is WEA.
Amersham is a London Underground station in Amersham in the Chiltern district of Buckinghamshire, England which is also used by National Rail services.
The Oyster card is a payment method for public transport in London in England, United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smart card. It is promoted by Transport for London (TfL) and can be used on travel modes across London including London Buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground, Tramlink, some river boat services, and most National Rail services within the London fare zones. Since its introduction in June 2003, more than 86 million cards have been used.
The Gospel Oak to Barking line, sometimes unofficially called the Goblin, is a railway line in London. It is 13 miles 58 chains (22.1 km) in length and carries both through goods trains and London Overground passenger trains, connecting Gospel Oak in north London and Barking Riverside in east London. The line is part of Network Rail Strategic Route 6, and is classified as a London and South East Commuter line. On 15 February 2024 Transport for London announced that the Overground service will be renamed the Suffragette line as part of a strategic rebrand.
The Travelcard is an inter-modal travel ticket for unlimited use on the London Underground, London Overground, Elizabeth line, Docklands Light Railway, London Trams, London Buses and National Rail services in the Greater London area. Travelcards can be purchased for a period of time varying from one day to a year, from Transport for London, National Rail and their agents. Depending on where it is purchased, and the length of validity, a Travelcard is either printed on a paper ticket with a magnetic stripe or encoded onto an Oyster card, Transport for London's contactless electronic smart card, or an ITSO smartcard issued by a National Rail train operating company. The cost of a Travelcard is determined by the area it covers and, for this purpose, London is divided into a number of fare zones. The Travelcard season ticket for unlimited travel on London Buses and the London Underground was launched on 22 May 1983 by London Transport. One Day Travelcards and validity on other transport modes were added from 1984 onwards. The introduction of the Travelcard caused an increase in patronage and reduced the number of tickets that needed to be purchased by passengers.
High Wycombe railway station is a railway station in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The station is on the Chiltern Main Line between Beaconsfield and Saunderton stations. It is served by Chiltern Railways.
Aylesbury railway station is a railway station in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, on the London–Aylesbury line from London Marylebone via Amersham. It is 38 miles (61 km) from Aylesbury to Marylebone. A branch line from Princes Risborough on the Chiltern Main Line terminates at the station. It was the terminus for London Underground's Metropolitan line until the service was cut back to Amersham in 1961. The station was also known as Aylesbury Town under the management of British Railways from c. 1948 until the 1960s.
The London Underground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) metro systems of London, England uses a mix of paper and electronic smart-card ticketing.
Overground Network was a branding initiative launched in 2003 by the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) and Transport for London (TfL), the public transport authority in London, England. Its aim was to encourage use of National Rail services in South London. The project was a partnership between the SRA, TfL, three train operating companies, the South and West London Transport Conference (SWELTRAC) and the South East London Transport Strategy (SELTRANS). The scheme is no longer being promoted and the Overground Network project has since been abandoned.
The National Location Code (NLC) is a four-digit number allocated to every railway station and ticket issuing point in Great Britain for use with the ticketing system on the British railway network. They are used in the issue of tickets and for accounting purposes. They are a subset of the NLCs created by British Rail, which are based on four "main" digits plus two supplementary digits.
The Shere SMART is a desktop-based railway ticket issuing system, developed by the Guildford-based company Shere Ltd, utilising Newbury Data ND4020 ticket printer, first introduced in Britain in 2003. Since the first trial installation of the system in the ticket office at London Bridge station, approximately 300 terminals have been installed at stations on the Southern and former Thameslink networks.
Tickets issued from British Rail's APTIS system had a considerable amount of detail, presented in a consistent, standard format. The design for all tickets was created by Colin Goodall. This format has formed the basis for all subsequent ticket issuing systems introduced on the railway network – ticket-office based, self-service and conductor-operated machines alike.
APTIS was the Accountancy and Passenger Ticket Issuing System used on the British Rail/National Rail network until 2007. It was originally called "Advanced Passenger Ticket Issuing System" as it was being developed at the time of the Advanced Passenger Train.
Contactless smartcards are being progressively introduced as an alternative option to paper ticketing on the National Rail system of Great Britain. Tickets for use on National Rail services can be loaded onto any ITSO card.
The Key is a contactless ITSO-compatible smartcard developed by the Go-Ahead Group used on buses, trains and other forms of public transport across various areas of the United Kingdom.
In 2014, a new design was introduced for train tickets issued on the National Rail network in Great Britain. The pre-2014 design was similar to the APTIS design introduced in 1986 by British Rail.
Automatic Train Protection (ATP) is a method of beacon based railway cab signalling developed by British Rail. The system is only installed on the Great Western Main Line between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, and the Chiltern Main Line from London Marylebone to High Wycombe and Aylesbury.
