National Location Code

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.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there were various ticket issuing systems in use, some quite localised. Some 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 had the NLC next to it. 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 INTIS was superseded by APTIS in 1986; the latter became the universal ticket office system for the next 15–20 years, with the last APTIS machines removed in March 2007.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 had 5268. An NLC covered the station and all of its associated accounting activities; it was on everything from tickets issued from self service ticket machines to ticket office staff wage slips. Where stations on the same site needed to be treated as separate entities, they were allocated different codes. When London Waterloo's East (serving South Eastern Division destinations) began in the late 1980s to be considered as a separate station from the main London Waterloo (NLC 5598), its self service machines got their own code, 5158. Revenue could then be apportioned correctly to the relevant Division, and, after privatisation, the correct Train Operating Company (TOC).

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 six "FASTticket" touch screen machines manufactured by Shere Ltd.; these bore NLC 8882 as well, whereas the ticket office machines ("SMART Terminal", supplied by Shere) used the station's original code, 5268.

Any location to which railway revenue or expenditure can be attributed was coded in the 1960s (or later, if it came into existence subsequently): codes are allocated to any location, be it fixed or mobile, that can issue tickets, and to any location that can have a ticket issued to it for a journey from a National Rail station. Some examples are:
London Underground stations: codes run upwards from 0500, allocated alphabetically by station name. Anomalies have arisen where stations have opened or changed their name. Docklands Light Railway stops, Northern Ireland Railways and Iarnród Éireann stations have codes in the 0000 series. Portable machines used by on train staff, originally PORTIS (Portable Ticket Issuing System), then SPORTIS (Super PORTIS) and now 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 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 (3644, now 2791) and the former Victoria Street Travel Centre in London (6127). Station groups. These pseudo locations have codes in the 0200 and 0400 ranges.