Buy Train Tickets Online

By: Tarun Jaswani

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage are a contractual document, setting out the consumer's rights and responsibilities when travelling on the National Rail network. When a train ticket is purchased, a contract is established. The CoC are the principal terms of that contract between traveller and train operating company, which have been established by the Rail Settlement Plan, which is part of the Association of Train Operating Companies. The document is available for public free download.

The Rail Settlement Plan or RSP is, in the ticketing system of the British railway network, the process that enables the revenue received from the purchase of generic,non-company specific train tickets to be split amongst the retailing station and the train operating companies (TOCs) that run trains along the route or parts of the route where the ticket is valid for travel. For example, the same railway ticket is valid from London Bridge to East Croydon on all services. The RSP provides a process to share the revenue between Network Rail (owners of London Bridge station) and the three train operating companies who run trains along this route (Southern, First Capital Connect and Southeastern).

This condition has important exceptions for in the event of closed ticket offices, broken ticket machines, etc. With the recent news that guards are to become "revenue protection officers and accept no excuses, however reasonable, for not having a ticket, condition 2 becomes more important. Recently, legitimate fare avoidance techniques have been much publicised in the UK press. They make use of techniques such as buying tickets which allow for a greater journey to be made than is actually desired, simply because that ticket is cheaper for some reason.

Also, the breaking of journeys into two parts, cheaper than one ticket for the same route would be, has become popular. This is allowed by three clauses: The railway network of the United Kingdom is operated with the aid of a number of documents, which have been sometimes termed technical manuals, because they are more detailed than the pocket-timetables which the public encounters every day. Historically, they were classified PRIVATE and not for publication, however since rail privatisation they are now all in the public domain, mostly in digital form, because they are produced centrally and not by the regional rail operators.

The National Rail Conditions of Carriage, which set out the customer's rights and responsibilities when travelling on the National Rail network , Every ticket purchased is a contract, and this document is the terms of that contract. It is produced by the Rail Settlement Plan, part of the ATOC. Another example of the benefits of RSP is the purchase of travelcards in London, where unlimited travel is valid within certain zones in the London area. The RSP also produces the National Rail Conditions of Carriage; the basic terms of the contract established when a customer purchases a ticket to travel.

Railway rolling stock, which is fitted with metal wheels, moves with low frictional resistance when compared to road vehicles. On the other hand, locomotives and powered cars normally rely on the point of contact of the wheel with the rail for traction and adhesion (the part of the transmitted axle load that makes the wheel adhere to the smooth rail). While this is usually sufficient under normal dry rail conditions, adhesion can be reduced or even lost through the presence of unwanted material on the rail surface, such as moisture, grease, ice, or dead leaves.

A Travelcard is an inter-modal ticket, valid for a period of time varying from one day to a year, for use on most public transport in London. The ticket is issued by Transport for London and National Rail outlets and can be used on the services of either.