Rail Settlement Plan (RSP) is a division of the

Rail Delivery Group The Rail Delivery Group Limited (RDG), previously the Association of Train Operating Companies, is the British rail industry membership body that brings together passenger and freight rail companies, Network Rail and High Speed 2. The RDG is a ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It provides a wide range of common services to the UK's

train operating companies In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...

and third-party providers of information and retail services. It was founded in 1995.

The green background of all UK rail tickets was made up of the repeated words "Rail Settlement Plan." In 2013, the railway started migrating to new ticket stock which uses the words "

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, a group representing passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services previously provided by ...

" instead.

History

The company was established on the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

primarily for the purpose of distributing the revenue received from the purchase of generic, non-company-specific train tickets. This revenue is split between the retailer and the

(TOCs) that run trains along the route. For example, the same railway ticket is valid from Bristol Temple Meads to

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

on all services: the RSP provides a process to share the revenue between the two train operating companies that run trains along this route (

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

and

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...

Expansion

Since privatisation, the company has increased the range of services it provides to train operators. The company now: * Collects retail sales data from 8,500 ticket issuing systems * Carries out the correct allocation of ticket revenue to train operators * Settles that revenue to the operators * Sets standards and accredits all industry ticket issuing systems * Maintains the central industry fares database and provides tools for train operators to set fares * Distributes fares, timetable, station and other industry data to ticket issuing and information systems * Provides the National Reservations Service enabling retailers to book reservations on all trains with reservable seats * Provides the capability to pick up preordered tickets at station ticket machines (Ticket-on-Departure) * Provides the industry standard ticket stock

Revenue splitting

The RSP system LENNON apportions revenue to each TOC. It replaced the British Rail system Capri in April 2002 and is operated by Worldline. Lennon collects all ticket sales data and processes it overnight, sending management information to the industry data warehouse. Lennon also creates the accounts for each TOC, and has interfaces to settlement systems that manage the four weekly net settlement of rail industry revenue. Lennon applies both agreed (between TOCs) allocation factors and those created by the ORCATS (Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services) model. Lennon also calculates rail industry commission to ticket sellers, which varies between 2% to 9% of the sale price, depending on the product, and if the sale is made face-to-face or remotely over the Internet. Commission is funded by each train operating company (TOC) in proportion to sales received. For example, if a TOC receives 59% of the sale as earnings, they pay 59% of the commission. Lennon also calculates adjustments for refunds and fees for the fulfilment of tickets sold over the internet, but printed at station kiosks.What exactly is ORCATS? ''

Rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' (1967 fil ...

'' issue 542 21 June 2006 page 58

References

External links

Rail Delivery Group RSP section
{{British railway ticket machines (computerised) Passenger rail transport in the United Kingdom

History

Expansion

Revenue splitting

See also

References

External links