Ticket checking and fares

Two tests, often sold as one

There are two related exercises. A ticket checking test — the TCT — asks you to judge whether a ticket is valid for a particular passenger on a particular journey. A ticket selling and checking test — the TSCT — adds fare calculation. Applicant accounts describe the CrossCountry version as explicitly two parts, fare calculation first and then checking.

Southeastern assesses the same skill on paper at its own recruitment centre rather than online. South Western Railway’s published stages no longer mention ticket selling at all, where older applicant accounts describe it — a good reminder that this changes, and that an absence is the best evidence you will usually get.

What you are actually checking

Validity date

Is the ticket dated for today, and for a return, is the return portion still in date?

Time restrictions

Off-peak and super off-peak tickets are barred from named trains or time bands. This is the single most common trap in these exercises.

Route

“Any permitted” is not the same as a named route. A ticket routed via one line is not valid on another, even between the same two stations.

Railcard

Is a discount claimed, is the railcard present and in date, does it match the named holder, and does it have its own time or minimum-fare restriction?

Class

A standard ticket in a first class seat is an upgrade or an excess, not an invalid ticket — the right answer is rarely “throw them off”.

Passenger type

Child, adult, or a child ticket held by somebody plainly over sixteen. Age-related validity is assessed as part of the checking skill.

The arithmetic you need

The numerical side is everyday money and time arithmetic done quickly under pressure, not school maths. At Northern it comes as percentages and figures read from charts, at Merseyrail as a maths paper, at GWR as a numerical reasoning test.

• Excess fares — the difference between what they hold and what they need, not the full price of the new ticket.
• Percentage discounts — a third off, and combinations of discount and child rate.
• Change from cash, with notes, quickly and without a calculator in your hand.
• Reading a fares table or chart and pulling the right cell out under time pressure.
• Time arithmetic across the hour — journey durations, connection gaps, whether a train falls inside a restriction band.
• Splitting a total across a group with different passenger types.

How to get faster without getting sloppy

• Check in a fixed order every time — date, time, route, class, railcard, passenger. A fixed sequence is faster than an intelligent one because you never have to decide what to look at next.
• Find the disqualifier and stop. Once one thing makes a ticket invalid, you do not need to verify the rest.
• Work the arithmetic in round numbers first, then correct. A ten per cent anchor catches an order-of-magnitude slip instantly.
• Read the question’s framing. “Is this valid?” and “what would you charge?” need different answers from the same ticket.
• Do not assume malice. Most invalid tickets in these items are honest mistakes, and the response the item rewards usually reflects that.

About our practice material

Every ticket, fare, route and condition in our practice is invented. We do not reproduce any operator’s real fare data, the National Rail Conditions of Travel, or anyone else’s test items. On the day you will be assessed on your employer’s own products and conditions — what practice buys you is the checking habit and the arithmetic speed, which is the part that transfers.