How are rail fares distributed between stations and TOCs etc?

[PaxmanValenta]

So if I buy a return ticket from Newton Abbot station ticket office to Exeter St David's, I pay the GWR ticket office my fare but then I travel on a Cross country service to Exeter. How does XC get the fare I paid to GWR and how does GWR know what train company's I used on my return journey to Exeter?
What proportion of my fare goes to the TOC or does GWR get the entire fare?

 

[rebmcr]

Look very carefully at the green part of your ticket.

You'll see RAIL SETTLEMENT PLAN lettering makes up the background pattern — this is the organisation which does the task you're wondering about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_Settlement_Plan

 

[Merseysider]

Revenue allocation is determined through a process called ORCATS.

Search on Google for "site:railforums.co.uk orcats" - there are a few threads there which hopefully address your question and should make for interesting reading.

 

[Mojo]

Look very carefully at the green part of your ticket.

You'll see RAIL SETTLEMENT PLAN lettering makes up the background pattern — this is the organisation which does the task you're wondering about.

This hasn't been printed on tickets for a couple of years now, since a new ticket stock was introduced in early 2013 (the one with the National Rail logo in a circle) the text now reads "National Rail." It is possible that some stocks of the older type still remain in circulation, however I have not come across one in a while now.

 

[yorkie]

Any of these results would provide some answers:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=orcats+site:railforums.co.uk

One of the results is Which TOC Gets My Money?, in which I posted:

These threads are worth a look:

• Train companies and tickets (June 2009)
• Orcats (August 2011)
• Revenue distribution among companies (November 2011)
• Article on ORCATS (April 2012)
• Who gets Season ticket money? (August 2012)

Hope that helps!

More results available via Google search for orcats site:railforums.co.uk

 

[mikeg]

My annual season has Rail Settlement Plan on it, it was printed after the ticket seller spent a great deal of time searching for the appropriate ticket stock (they'd ran out of the new National Rail one but had some old ones, one presumes).

Yorkie's post deals well with ORCATS allocation but how are stations which don't sell tickets paid for? Especially since a TOC has to operate them?

 

[yorkie]

I'm not sure I understand the question: how are stations paid for? I think that may be a question for another thread (not in the fares section), but I am not really sure I understand what sort of answer you are seeking.

 

[mikeg]

I suppose then it's paid for with the rest of the service. But is it like airports where any train calling at the station pays the company operating the station a fee?
The stations are maintained by various TOCs and Network Rail, somebody has to do the upkeep and this has to be paid for. Does it just come out of the station operator's operational costs?
What about Stamford (Lincs) operated by EMT but all services provided by XC? Do XC have to pay EMT anything (other than the commission deducted from ticket sales there)? Feel free to split it into a separate thread.

 

[yorkie]

I think you are asking multiple questions but the questions regarding stations aren't anything to do with fares; feel free to create a thread in the Infrastructure & Stations section enquiring about access charges.

Commission is something else entirely