Office of Rail Regulation| June 2012| Fares and ticketing – information and complexity 6 9. The programme of initiatives proposed by ATOC and the train companies is not therefore prescriptive in setting uniform approaches to the provision of fares information or retailing of fares. The National Routeing Guide is a document, the definitive resource on the validity (and invalidity) of rail tickets for the purpose of rail travel in England, Wales, and Scotland (that is, the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland).
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Industry | Rail transport |
---|---|
Predecessor | Association of Train Operating Companies, Rail Delivery Group |
Founded | 24 October 2017 |
Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Website | www.raildeliverygroup.com/ |
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) is the British rail industry membership body that brings together passenger and freight rail companies, Network Rail and High Speed 2.
History[edit]
From 24 October 2017, RDG replaced:
- The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), comprising the passenger train operating companies. ATOC was set up by the train operators to ensure nationwide services – such as ticket acceptance and railcards – continued after the privatisation of the railways under the Railways Act 1993. ATOC also lobbied on the operators' behalf.
- The former Rail Delivery Group, formed in 2011 to formulate policy and undertake communications on behalf of the entire rail industry. At first the group's members were the major passenger and freight train operator groups, together with Network Rail; membership was widened to all passenger and freight operators in 2013.[1]
The new RDG is owned by its members, which are:
- Network Rail, the nationalised owner of the rail infrastructure
- The train operating companies that provide passenger services
- The freight operating companies
- The Rail Supply Group,[2] representing the rail supply industry
- HS2 Ltd, the company building a high-speed line
The current RDG owns both the National Rail and 'Britain Runs on Rail' brands. The company's legal name continues to be ATOC Limited.[3]
Main operations[edit]
![Atoc National Fares Manual Atoc National Fares Manual](/uploads/1/2/4/7/124755550/914292229.png)
- Revenue allocation and settlement through ORCATS systems
- Railcard marketing
- Staff travel arrangements for current and retired railway staff
- International products, such as Britrail and Interrail
- The relationship with Transport for London
- The licensing of third party ticket sellers, such as travel agents and online sellers such as The Trainline and Red Spotted Hanky
- Sponsorship of the Plusbus and Cycle-Rail schemes
- Railway policy formulation
- Industry communications with the public
It also produces the definitive National Routeing Guide, defining the validity of tickets, and has some input in the content of the National Fares Manual, which is distributed by the National Rail website. It works with RSG to coordinate shared objectives.
European equivalents[edit]
As rail franchising also takes place in other countries, most European countries have one or more equivalent organisation.
In Germany, the Tarifverband der Bundeseigenen und Nichtbundeseigenen Eisenbahnen in Deutschland (Tariff Association of Federal and Non-Federal Railways in Germany; TBNE) is responsible for railway ticket revenue distribution. Political representation of TOCs is carried out by mofair e.V.
In Sweden, the equivalent organisation is the Branschföreningen Tågoperatörerna (Association of Swedish Train Operating Companies).
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'About us'. Rail Delivery Group. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
- ^'About us'. Rail Supply Group. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ^'ATOC Limited'. Companies House. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
External links[edit]
- Official website
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rail_Delivery_Group&oldid=907803152'
A copy of the 2002 edition of the National Routeing Guide.
The National Routeing Guide is a document, the definitive resource on the validity (and invalidity) of rail tickets for the purpose of rail travel in England, Wales, and Scotland (that is, the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland). As stated by the Rail Regulator, '[it] sets out passengers' rights to use the network flexibly'.[1] It is a book produced by the Rail Delivery Group, which should always be carried by any rail ticket inspector. It is also always on hand to staff at manned stations.
It is one of a number of technical railway manuals which exist as part of the operating of the rail network of Great Britain, many of which are now in the public domain.
Customers generally encounter the document in specific circumstances, when they wish to prove (or check) the validity of their ticket on a route which might at first not appear obvious. Since most rail travellers make 'simple' journeys, many will never encounter it. However, when making more complex journeys, it is important to stay 'on route'. The guide defines what this means. Individual tickets may restrict holders to a subset of the acceptable routes, usually by requiring them to travel through a particular station.
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2Issues of value to the traveller
- 2.1The On-Route principle
Format[edit]
- The published guide is available online in PDF format, in 6 distinct sections (termed A-F), and includes an introduction and worked examples. This is identical to the version carried by rail workers, since it is derived from the Rail Delivery Group website.[2]
- A public paper copy of the guide is made available in the Office of Rail & Road library, which is open to the public by appointment.[1] The Office of Rail & Road website also contains copies of the original 1996 Routeing Guide[3] and the amended 1997 Routeing Guide.[4]
- In theory, paper copies are also available for public purchase, which in 2002 cost £12.50, the same price as one volume of the multi-part 'National Fares Manual', which provides details of all fares on the network in 7 volumes. Enthusiasts using the routeing guide to identify good value travel often use the two together. However, paper copies are currently difficult to obtain and it is unknown if publication has ceased, although since the document is covered under the Freedom of Information Act a paper copy may be requested from the Department for Transport.[5]
Issues of value to the traveller[edit]
'Ticketing arrangements on the UK's railways are notoriously arcane, but you can use the rules to get cheaper fares.'
The routeing guide makes possible some of the recently publicised ticketing anomalies in the UK rail network such as saving money by purchasing tickets for long journeys as several discrete journeys instead, for example[6] As such it is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the knowing consumer, given the current complexity of ticket choice on the UK rail network. It is also important for travellers who contemplate a different route when faced with disruption; under these circumstances staff may stamp or sign a ticket as valid via a different route.
When it was introduced, its primary aim was to 'provide passengers with certainty about what travel their ticket buys them[7] ', after many years of ambiguity over 'reasonable' journeys, therefore passengers are now quite within their rights to use it as a point of reference, since it has been written and approved by the transport companies.
The On-Route principle[edit]
The primary concern of those travelling is staying on a route acceptable for the ticket they have purchased. The customer is always on-route if they can answer yes to at least one of the below, according to section A of the guide:
- Is the train an advertised direct train from origin to destination?
- Is the customer on the shortest (by distance) route between origin and destination? (according to the mile distances listed in the National Rail Timetable, in theory, though not always in practice.)
The full routeing guide is consulted only upon answering 'No' to both questions. This can occur when the customer wishes or needs to change trains several times, either with a view to travelling on a particular line (for example to connect with a faster train), or because of a desire to break a journey at a given station not directly on the 'expected' route.
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Doubling back[edit]
Passing through the same station twice is almost always forbidden, except where a rule or 'easement' allows it.
Easements[edit]
These easements are exceptions to the acceptable routes which are otherwise explicitly defined, and are listed in Section E of the Guide for easy reference. They are simple to understand one-line rules, and exist to ensure that in most circumstances the simplest journey is acceptable.For example, the 'no doubling back' rule normally requires travellers changing from one line to another to change at the junction station. However, such stations are often small and poorly served, so local easements often exist to allow travel to the nearest major station. In many cases this enables the traveller to remain on 'fast' services.
'Easement 700221: Customers travelling from, to or via Truro to St Ives .. may double back between St Erth and Penzance. This easement applies in both directions.'
Others are matters of convenience:'Easement 020003: Passengers for Aviemore and Carrbridge are permitted to alight from the sleeper at Inverness and double back to their destination in the morning.'
Some easements are negative, forbidding a route that might otherwise be acceptable.
The relevant section of the Guide which is currently available at the Rail Delivery Group website details more than five hundred different easements.
Disabled access[edit]
Train Operating Companies may make special arrangements for disabled passengers, who have further exemptions on an individual case basis. This allows for different routes in certain situations, such as where normal practice is to walk between two nearby stations on different lines to catch a connecting train, which wheelchair users might find difficult. There are however no clear stated rules for defining what is 'reasonable' for disabled people—this is presumably a matter of discretion. Some journeys must involve walks of up to 10 minutes in some cases between stations to make a connection (e.g. Farnborough (Main) to Farnborough North, Ash Vale to North Camp)
Atoc National Fares Manual 2017
Permitted Routes[edit]
Three types of routes are acceptable: direct trains, shortest route, or mapped routes. The first two are simple and outlined above. Almost the whole of the routeing guide is taken up with specifying the third for the entire country.
Principle
- The UK rail network has stations which are deemed routeing points. These are principal stations, or junctions, shown in green on the adjacent map. Groups of nearby stations are sometimes treated as a single routeing point (e.g. 'Portsmouth Stations').
- All other stations are associated with one or more routeing points. When a station has more than one routeing point available, fares from each routeing point to the other station are compared, and only those where the fare is equal to or cheaper than the overall journey are deemed appropriate.
JourneysThe rules can be summarised thus:
- Where both stations have a common routeing point, only the shortest route between them is valid.
- Otherwise, for every pair of routeing points the guide lists at least one map (or series of maps) that may be used to get from one point to the other. These maps in turn define which lines are valid between routeing points. Any route on these maps is valid so long as it does not involve doubling back (passing through the same station twice), unless there is a specific easement allowing doubling back, or the doubling back is done within a station group for the purposes of interchange.
- Some ticket types have specific route restrictions, e.g. 'not London', or prescriptions e.g. 'Reading'.
The guide allows many journeys which one might not expect. Travelling from Cardiff to Cambridge via Swansea, Shrewsbury, and Birmingham is acceptable, for instance, rather than simply via London. Generally there are a large number of permitted routes which are rarely used because they are inconvenient, but which are nevertheless legitimate. Some travellers have reported being charged extra for 'special' routes, however.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Revised Routeing Guide approved by Regulator'. Office of Rail Regulation. 1997. Archived from the original on 16 December 2004.
- ^'Routeing Guide'. Association of Train Operating Companies.
- ^'National Routeing Guide 1996 edition'. Office of Rail and Road Public Register. Association of Train Operating Companies. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ^'National Routeing Guide 1997 edition'. Office of Rail and Road Public Register. Association of Train Operating Companies. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ^'Request for copies of every paper/PDF version of the National Routeing Guide since its inception'. What do They Know?.
- ^'10 legit ways to get cheaper rail fares'. BBC. 13 March 2007.
- ^'Routeing Guide defines 'reasonable' rail routes for the first time'. Office of Rail Regulation. 1996. Archived from the original on 29 October 2004.
External links[edit]
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Official Resources:
Atoc National Fares Manual Online
Discussing:
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Resource
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