National Location Code - Anomalies

Anomalies

Since privatisation, the need for new codes has grown so much that they have largely stopped being allocated on a geographical basis, especially where additional codes are being given to a station. Where a new station is given a geographically correct code, it is usually because the station had been planned for some time and a gap was left in the appropriate section of codes. An example is Lea Green (NLC 2339), which was proposed for many years (under the name "Marshalls Cross") before being opened in 2000. Sometimes, as at Chandler's Ford, a station is reopened with its original code after being closed. When Coleshill Parkway between Birmingham and Nuneaton was opened in 2007 it was allocated 9882, which relates geographically to Scotland.

Some quirks have always existed, however:

• Kensington Olympia station was given code 3092 as it was considered part of the Western Region although it was not served by any scheduled trains from that region, with only a tenuous physical connection (the little-used North Pole Junction). It passed into Southern Region control, when the only services were peak-hour shuttle trains from Clapham Junction, before passing to the Midland Region before privatisation when a Clapham Junction-Willesden Junction service began (now operated by London Overground and Southern).
• Skipton formed the boundary between the LMR and ER, and so could have been given a 2000-series or an 8000-series code. Although most of its services originated from the ER, it was given 2728.
• The North London Line (Richmond-Stratford; Richmond-North Woolwich until December 2006) crosses several regions. The first two stations, Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury, were given 5500-series codes to match Richmond. The London Underground District Line route was left for LMR territory, with 1000-series codes. Because the LMR had a terminus at Broad Street in the City of London (closed 1986), the 1000-series continued until the junction where the branch line to Broad Street left the North London Line; the junction formed the boundary between the LMR and the ER, with 6000-series codes continuing for the rest of the route. When a new station opened at Dalston Kingsland, it was given 1429, as it lay on the LMR side of the junction.
• The Spa Valley Railway recently completed its extension to the National Rail network at Eridge, with through ticketing. Stations were given the alpha-numeric NLCs K659, Tunbridge Wells (SpVR); K570, Groombridge (SpVR); and K571, High Rocks Halt (SpVR).