In the ticketing system of the British rail network, tickets are normally issued to and from individual stations. In some instances, when there is more than one station in a town or other locality—especially where these are on different routes—it may be desirable for passengers to be able to travel to one station and back from another, or more generally to be able to choose which of the stations they wish to travel to. To accommodate this requirement, British Rail introduced a series of station groups: notional "common locations" to which tickets from stations outside that group would be issued.

For example, Penge in South London has two stations: Penge East and Penge West. The former is served by trains from London Victoria to Orpington; the latter is on the route from London Bridge to West Croydon. For a traveller arriving at, for example, a London terminal station and intending to go to Penge, it makes little difference which route is chosen. Both stations are close together and serve the same area. Therefore, a ticket issued specifically to one of the Penge stations would be unduly restrictive—it would remove the opportunity to travel by a choice of equally convenient routes. A notional "Penge group" solves this problem: a ticket issued in this way would be interavailable.

The concept is explained in the National Fares Manuals (NFMs) issued approximately three times per year by the British Railways Board (and, since privatisation, by the Association of Train Operating Companies) to stations, Rail Appointed Travel Agents and other ticket issuing authorities: "Fares for certain ... cities and towns are shown to and from a notional common station[.] All fares are quoted and all tickets should be issued to and from [these notional group] stations except for local journeys between two stations in the same group. Tickets issued to and from these [notional group] stations are valid to or from any of their associated stations, subject to normal route availability."

Terminology and appearance on tickets

These "locations" had to be shown in a standard, easily identifiable way on tickets. The method chosen by the British Railways Board was as follows: Take the name of the actual location where the stations are: for Penge East and Penge West, PENGE. Add the suffix BR to this: PENGE BR.

Each station group was also allocated its own National Location Code (NLC)—a four-digit code used for accounting and to attribute revenue to locations on the railway network. Most station group codes were between 0250 and 0500. This NLC appeared on PORTIS/SPORTIS tickets, which by convention always showed the "origin" and "destination" NLCs as well as the code of the issuing point; but tickets from the APTIS system and its replacements always showed the NLC of the actual station of issue, even where a ticket was issued from a "station group" (except for some short-lived anomalies).

After privatisation, the designation "BR" was no longer appropriate, although having been in use for more than 10 years it had become a convenient shorthand device for referring to the station groups concept in general (for example, National Fares Manuals continued to use the term "BR Stations"). A new designation had to be created which still took up little space on a ticket (location names are restricted to 16 characters on most ticket issuing systems) and which still conveyed a notion of interavailability.

The solution, introduced gradually from November 1997 and uploaded to all ticket issuing systems by January 1998, was for BR to be changed to STNS or STATIONS as appropriate: STNS if the location name was between 8 and 11 characters in length: for example, LIVERPOOL BR became LIVERPOOL STNS. STATIONS if the location name was 7 characters or fewer: for example, DORKING BR became DORKING STATIONS.

There were some deviations from this standard: As GAINSBOROUGH is 12 characters in length, a meaningful abbreviation to signify the station grouping could not be created. As a result the Gainsborough group is simply shown as GAINSBOROUGH. As GLASGOW STATIONS could have been mistakenly interpreted by passengers as referring to the whole of the Glasgow suburban rail network, it was used only briefly before being changed in mid-April 1998 to GLASGOW CEN/QST, specifically representing Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street stations.

Additionally, the London group is treated as a special case. It was created in April 1970 by BR's Southern Region as a grouping of their nine terminal stations named LONDON S.R., before being expanded in May 1983 to include all BR terminals under the name LONDON BR, and then LONDON BRIT RAIL from January 1989 until 1997. Rather than receiving the standard new name of LONDON STATIONS it was referred to simply as LONDON before becoming LONDON TERMINALS in April 1998, even though four of the eighteen stations included in the group are not technically termini.

Existing groups , 38 station groups (including the London group) are known to exist. The table shows the NLC allocated to each group, the pre- and post-privatisation renderings of the group name, and the stations included within it.

Current nameFormer nameNLCStations IncludedNotesRefsBEDFORD STATIONSBEDFORD BR0410Bedford, Bedford St JohnsBICESTER NTH/VIL—7934Bicester North, Bicester VillageThe most recently created group, dating from 28 July 2015Fares Feed dated 10 January 2017BIRMINGHAM STNSBIRMINGHAM BR0418Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Snow HillBirmingham Snow Hill was included from January 1988 following the reopening of the station.BOOTLE STATIONS—1780Bootle New Strand, Bootle Oriel RoadIntroduced 26 September 1999.BRADFORD YK STNSBRADFORD YKS BR0424Bradford Forster Square, Bradford InterchangeCANTERBURY STNSCANTERBURY BR0428Canterbury East, Canterbury WestCATFORD STATIONSCATFORD BR0258Catford, Catford BridgeCOLCHESTER STNSCOLCHESTER BR0254Colchester, Colchester TownIntroduced in May 1991.CROYDON STATIONSCROYDON BR0449East Croydon, West CroydonTickets are valid to and from South Croydon as well, but tickets issued at South Croydon show that name.DORCHESTER STNSDORCHESTER BR0429Dorchester South, Dorchester WestDORKING STATIONSDORKING BR0416Dorking, Dorking Deepdene, Dorking WestEDENBRIDGE STNSEDENBRIDGE BR0259Edenbridge, Edenbridge TownENFIELD STATIONSENFIELD BR0263Enfield Chase, Enfield TownEnfield Lock has never been included.FALKIRK STATIONSFALKIRK BR0431Falkirk Grahamston, Falkirk HighFARNBOROUGH STNSFARNBOROUGH BR0260Farnborough (Main), Farnborough NorthFOLKESTONE STNSFOLKESTONE BR0432Folkestone Central, Folkestone WestFolkestone Harbour was included until closure in 2001.GAINSBOROUGHGAINSBOROUGH BR0415Gainsborough Central, Gainsborough Lea RoadGLASGOW CEN/QSTGLASGOW BR0433Glasgow Central, Glasgow Queen StreetOccasionally seen as GLASGOW STATIONS in 1998; officially renamed GLASGOW CEN/QST from 27 September 1998.HELENSBURGH STNSHELENSBURGH BR0404Helensburgh Central, Helensburgh UpperHERTFORD STNSHERTFORD BR0413Hertford East, Hertford NorthLIVERPOOL STNSLIVERPOOL BR0435Liverpool Central, Liverpool James Street, Liverpool Lime Street, MoorfieldsLONDON TERMINALSLONDON BR1072Blackfriars, Cannon Street, Charing Cross, City Thameslink, Euston, Fenchurch Street, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Marylebone, Moorgate, Old Street, Paddington, St Pancras, Vauxhall, Victoria, Waterloo, Waterloo EastLONDON THAMESLINK—4452Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Euston, London Bridge, St Pancras, Farringdon, Kentish Town, Elephant & CastleNational Rail Enquiries - LondonMAIDSTONE STNSMAIDSTONE BR0437Maidstone Barracks, Maidstone East, Maidstone WestMANCHESTER STNSMANCHESTER BR0438Deansgate, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester VictoriaDeansgate and Salford Central were included in the group until January 1989. By 2005, Deansgate was included again. MANCHESTER CTLZ includes the same stations and also Manchester Metrolink Central Zone tram stations. NEWARK STATIONSNEWARK BR0441Newark Castle, Newark North GatePENGE STATIONSPENGE BR0262Penge East, Penge WestPONTEFRACT STNSPONTEFRACT BR0268Pontefract Baghill, Pontefract MonkhillPontefract Tanshelf was included in the group from September 1997, but by 2005 was no longer included.PORTSMOUTH STNSPORTSMOUTH BR0440Portsmouth & Southsea, Portsmouth HarbourFratton was included in the group until October 1988.READING STATIONSREADING BR0403Reading, Reading WestTilehurst was included in the group until October 1988.SOUTHEND STNSSOUTHEND BR0411Southend Central, Southend VictoriaSouthend East is no longer included in this group.THORNE STATIONSTHORNE BR0271Thorne North, Thorne SouthTILBURY STATIONSTILBURY BR7468Tilbury Riverside, Tilbury TownIntroduced in January 1993. East Tilbury has never been included. Tilbury Riverside closed to rail services in 1993, but c2c provide a minibus service between Tilbury Town and the former station to provide a connection with the ferry to Gravesend.TYNDRUM STATIONSTYNDRUM BR0443Tyndrum Lower, Upper TyndrumWAKEFIELD STNSWAKEFIELD BR0444Wakefield Kirkgate, Wakefield WestgateWARRINGTON STNSWARRINGTON BR0445Warrington Bank Quay, Warrington CentralW HAMPSTEAD STNSWEST HAMPSTD BR0265West Hampstead, West Hampstead ThameslinkWIGAN STATIONSWIGAN BR0446Wigan North Western, Wigan WallgateWORCESTER STNSWORCESTER BR0447Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub HillDroitwich Spa was included in the group until October 1988.

Defunct groups The following table contains groups which have been used at some time between 1985 and the present, but which are not currently in use.