Validity code printed on ticket

[John @ home]

I'm pleased to see that the Validity is beginning to be printed on train tickets. But an unfamiliar Code is used.

For example, I have an Off-Peak Return (SVR) London Terminals - Kings Lynn route Via Cambridge ticket. Below the price on the ticket, there is printed Validity 72. But the National Fares Manual NFM 13 CD tells me that the Validity Code (or Restriction) for this ticket is 4J.

Code: 4J

Restrictions Applies: Monday to Friday only. No travel restrictions on other days.

OUTWARD TRAVEL
By any train scheduled to depart at or after 0930. Also, at or after 0915 from Bedford.

RETURN TRAVEL
By any train scheduled to to depart at or after 0930, but also allowed on:
Crewkerne 0910
Exeter St Davids 0926
Fratton 0928
Portsmouth Harbour 0918
Portsmouth and Southsea 0924
Sherborne 0926
Southampton Central 0910
Swanwick 0928
Yeovil Junction 0929

Can anyone tell me how to translate from the Code printed on the ticket (in this instance 72) to that in the Fares Manual (4J)?

 

[maniacmartin]

That's strange - all of the tickets that I have got with the validity code printed on have used the code from the NFM

 

[Paul Kelly]

I am going to stick my neck out and predict it is an error by the machine programmer. My hypothesis is that someone has been told they need to print the restriction code on the ticket, and instead of printing the recognised alphanumeric code from the NFM, they have printed some internal numerical ID that their software uses instead.

The interesting part is figuring out how they have come up with this internal ID. My first idea was that it is maybe assigned in alphabetical order. But if all the restriction codes used in NFM13 are sorted into alphabetical order, 4J comes out at number 48. So that's a bit too far off to be right I think.

The other idea I had was that all restriction codes are allocated a unique ID as and when they are come across in the electronic version of the NFM, incremented every time a new restriction code is encountered that wasn't seen before. With this system in NFM13, 4J comes out at number 67. Much closer, although still not perfect. We could hypothesise I suppose that the first 5 are reserved for special use and that makes it come out correctly, but I think that is stretching things!

In any case, we can test my theory if we come across another ticket with this supposed internal code printed on it - see below for my list of predictions

  0 RESERVED
  1 RESERVED
  2 RESERVED
  3 RESERVED
  4 RESERVED
  5   
  6 B1
  7 PF
  8 PG
  9 J8
 10 C4
 11 D6
 12 C0
 13 P7
 14 US
 15 BE
 16 C7
 17 LS
 18 FB
 19 CH
 20 WM
 21 PV
 22 VY
 23 PB
 24 4N
 25 5Q
 26 LW
 27 G9
 28 MK
 29 B2
 30 SL
 31 SM
 32 LC
 33 XC
 34 L5
 35 O7
 36 LD
 37 WP
 38 WX
 39 2X
 40 GK
 41 2Q
 42 WV
 43 YV
 44 WH
 45 WN
 46 B4
 47 TN
 48 CO
 49 AG
 50 L4
 51 E9
 52 FA
 53 SK
 54 1A
 55 D4
 56 SE
 57 SB
 58 UO
 59 5B
 60 W1
 61 5K
 62 Y4
 63 F3
 64 4A
 65 4B
 66 W4
 67 4P
 68 B6
 69 4E
 70 GX
 71 5J
 72 4J
 73 B3
 74 7B
 75 5M
 76 TS
 77 W6
 78 PI
 79 PQ
 80 W3
 81 W5
 82 9A
 83 J6
 84 OA
 85 J9
 86 1L
 87 1D
 88 9D
 89 1T
 90 CA
 91 PU
 92 WZ
 93 IF
 94 ZK
 95 IS
 96 ZJ
 97 YC
 98 YU
 99 VX
100 VU
101 VA
102 VR
103 CU
104 CI
105 7E
106 CJ
107 9J
108 AR
109 VF
110 5R
111 DN
112 2C
113 9I
114 DM
115 AS
116 3A
117 5F
118 1K
119 1E
120 9F
121 1V
122 GC
123 4Y
124 QS
125 WA
126 Q9
127 Q8
128 QF
129 ZI
130 ZH
131 YD
132 YP
133 YB
134 YX
135 YG
136 YQ
137 WW
138 YW
139 YH
140 YN
141 VJ
142 VM
143 D1
144 1C
145 LK
146 1W
147 1X
148 VK
149 VN
150 M2
151 CZ
152 LE
153 OC
154 SF
155 DS
156 UU
157 W8
158 B5
159 W2
160 TQ
161 ES
162 B7
163 UT
164 F1
165 HC
166 I1
167 I5
168 8A
169 NW
170 YS
171 5L
172 A2
173 8D
174 H1
175 H3
176 H2
177 8F
178 TI
179 U6
180 WU
181 2O
182 CP
183 EH
184 A1
185 JB
186 2T
187 CG
188 B8
189 NX
190 UQ
191 VZ
192 DI
193 CS
194 LZ
195 BZ
196 FH
197 GF
198 EF
199 CQ
200 DB
201 DJ
202 VW
203 DL
204 DK
205 XR
206 BX
207 2V
208 CD
209 GZ
210 FC
211 F4
212 SW
213 P6
214 H7
215 GA
216 BV
217 TD
218 TE
219 9E
220 TM
221 IH
222 VP
223 VH
224 Y9
225 NU
226 6K
227 6L
228 6C
229 6D
230 TG
231 Y7
232 NS
233 FE
234 I3
235 SJ
236 TH
237 I2
238 I4
239 I7
240 2L
241 SV
242 BR
243 EP
244 1Z
245 GL
246 GH
247 N9
248 IE
249 AT
250 NT
251 D5
252 A7
253 L7
254 HV
255 1H
256 1J
257 ET
258 G1
259 DE
260 SY
261 4G
262 KM
263 PH
264 PJ
265 PK
266 PL
267 FX
268 4C
269 HD
270 HT
271 HE
272 EA
273 9M
274 2B
275 BT
276 AE
277 9B
278 EM
279 EU
280 F9
281 3S
282 8X
283 2R
284 AD
285 NY
286 NZ
287 AC
288 GG
289 I6
290 W9
291 P5
292 T7
293 WO
294 W7
295 WG
296 2A
297 L2
298 LB
299 WI
300 C6
301 3V
302 8E
303 OB
304 L9
305 FT
306 E3
307 B9
308 XV
309 GE
310 C2
311 D7
312 HU
313 G6
314 I8
315 I9
316 H8
317 6I
318 6J
319 1U
320 GJ
321 2W
322 8H
323 6N
324 6M
325 H9
326 J1
327 T6
328 GD
329 5A
330 5X
331 UR
332 NA
333 2U
334 VV
335 EK
336 E1
337 6R
338 6S
339 2S
340 4I
341 4Q
342 4H
343 Q7
344 Q6
345 E2
346 E5
347 E7
348 4K
349 A5
350 3L
351 TU
352 TX
353 TY
354 TV
355 TW
356 TT
357 3Y
358 2M
359 EJ
360 BI
361 BL
362 TZ
363 EL
364 C1
365 F6
366 4M
367 CR
368 X1
369 XW
370 6P
371 6W
372 U5
373 U4
374 U7
375 U3

 

[lemonic]

I have recently had tickets print out with validity 85. However, these tickets have had different restriction codes, e.g. B4 and D1.

 

[bb21]

Do either of you wish to disclose where your tickets were printed?

 

[maniacmartin]

My tickets with the NFM validity codes were printed by Southern at Brighton

 

[lemonic]

My tickets were purchased on the Southern website and printed out from a TVM at Ipswich station.

 

[transportphoto]

Hi,

I have a couple of tickets with the Validity code printed on them, some correct, some not so.

I have a Norwich to Sheringham CDR from early April this year issued by Virgin Trains at their Carlisle ticket office with the correct restriction (B6) indicated, where as I have one issued only this Sunday gone (16/9/12) with the rather dubious '85'.

I even have an Advance here issued by a Southern (TOD only) TVM at Brighton from February this year with the correct validity code (VR) printed on it.

See attached for a scan of the first two examples.

TP

 

[John @ home]

I'm not certain where the London - Kings Lynn ticket I mention in the first post was printed.

It may be that Greater Anglia's machines print tickets with the wrong codes.

 

[Paul Kelly]

I have recently had tickets print out with validity 85. However, these tickets have had different restriction codes, e.g. B4 and D1.

Looks like that scuppers everything then - a direct translation obviously won't be possible if restriction codes that should be different are coming out the same.

 

[maniacmartin]

I've dug out a ticket bought last weekend from a TVM at London Liv St and it has Validity code "85" also. This one should have been D4.

More evidence it may only affect certain tickets printed at TVMs belonging to certain TOCs (like Greater Anglia.)

As a sidenote, the Y-P now prints much larger on their TVMs, and the -printing is spotlessly crisp, but some letters are truncated - check out the origin station and start date in particular! Good old LONON TERMINALS

 

[maniacmartin]

Does anyone have any tickets with these non-NFM validity codes that was not printed by Greater Anglia?

 

[Paul Kelly]

Maybe it is an internal code for the text printed in the validity field. Do all tickets with code 85 have "SEE RESTRICTNS" for the validity? Does the ticket with code 72 have anything different?

 

[Mojo]

Not another style of printing tickets surely? Remind me just how are we supposed to spot fake tickets; no surprise there are so many fake tickets printed on NR stock...

 

[transportphoto]

Maybe it is an internal code for the text printed in the validity field. Do all tickets with code 85 have "SEE RESTRICTNS" for the validity? Does the ticket with code 72 have anything different?

Good theory... I have noted I have a GA TVM issued AP validity 'BOOKDTRAINONLY' with a dubious 64 & an Anytime Day Return validity 'ON DATE SHOWN' with a dubious 81.

Not another style of printing tickets surely? Remind me just how are we supposed to spot fake tickets; no surprise there are so many fake tickets printed on NR stock...

Exactly my thought...

TP

 

[island]

I've dug out a ticket bought last weekend from a TVM at London Liv St and it has Validity code "85" also. This one should have been D4.

More evidence it may only affect certain tickets printed at TVMs belonging to certain TOCs (like Greater Anglia.)

As a sidenote, the Y-P now prints much larger on their TVMs, and the -printing is spotlessly crisp, but some letters are truncated - check out the origin station and start date in particular! Good old LONON TERMINALS

I think that's just a misfed ticket.

 

[maniacmartin]

Not another style of printing tickets surely? Remind me just how are we supposed to spot fake tickets; no surprise there are so many fake tickets printed on NR stock...

Yes, changing the style often keeps those fraudsters on their toes

 

[Mojo]

Yes, changing the style often keeps those fraudsters on their toes

Unfortunately it's not "changing the style," but introducing a brand new one. Fake tickets used to have one thing in common; they contained some kind of mistake in the printing which gave them away. Now it seems real tickets look worse than some fakes I've seen...

 

[maniacmartin]

I think you missed my attempt at sarcasm...

 

[John @ home]

This latest speculation seems to be that (at least some) Greater Anglia machines print a code for the field printed below the word "Validity" instead of the Validity Code from the National Fares Manual CD, and that:

64 = BookdTrainOnly
72 = As Advertised
81 = On Date Shown
85 = See Restrictns

 

[island]

That's rivalling a chocolate teapot.

 

[route:oxford]

Not another style of printing tickets surely? Remind me just how are we supposed to spot fake tickets; no surprise there are so many fake tickets printed on NR stock...

Is there a lot of genuine NR stock out there?

I have seen boxes of un-printed stock sitting on top of, or around unattended ticket machines in the past.

 

[AndyLandy]

Is there a lot of genuine NR stock out there?

I have seen boxes of un-printed stock sitting on top of, or around unattended ticket machines in the past.

Blank ticket stock sometimes makes its way on to eBay. If you're determined enough to get a hold of some, I'm sure it can be done.

In fact, I know I have at least one blank because I was issued it in lieu of a platform ticket. When people are just giving them away, what hope is there?

 

[Lrd]

I have a few tickets that were left on the windowsill for at least year which have now faded to just blank tickets.

 

[Eagle]

I have a few tickets that were left on the windowsill for at least year which have now faded to just blank tickets.

The magnetic strip won't be blank, though (although it might be corrupt).

 

[Lrd]

The magnetic strip won't be blank, though (although it might be corrupt).

Very true, something I hadn't considered.

 

[thedbdiboy]

The code printed should be the restriction code (4J; B1; 9N etc etc). Not all TIS can yet do this. It sounds as though at least one supplier has mapped the wrong data to the relevant field. It won't affect the validity (or encoding) on the ticket but it is something we'll want to troubleshoot.

If at all possible, where this has happened could you post the details of the relevant ticket, in particular the numbers on the right hand side which will show machine, issuing location etc.

Thanks!

 

[John @ home]

Details of the return portion of the London - Kings Lynn ticket:

Class: STD
Ticket type: OFF-PEAK R
Adult: ONE
Child: NIL
RTN
GOLDC
Start Date: 01.SEP.12A
Valid until: 30.SEP.12
Number: 35439 2440189930
From: KINGS LYNN *
To: LONDON TERMINALS
Route: VIA CAMBRIDGE
Price: £28.00X
Validity: 72
AS ADVERTISED
2-PART RETURN
<surname>
ToD CTR TBJFTLG5/1749 Printed 16:35 on 28.AUG.12

 

[Deerfold]

The magnetic strip won't be blank, though (although it might be corrupt).

No, but if you were fraudulently printing tickets is that any worse than a blank strip?

Presumably at the next level up fraudsters may be able to write to the strip, presumably overwriting any information already there (in the same way the gates overwrite the last gate data).