RSP-6 Specification for Barcodes on UK Rail Tickets

Stuart Bain made this Freedom of Information request to Rail Delivery Group
This authority is not subject to FOI law, so is not legally obliged to respond (details).
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Response to this request is long overdue. Although not legally required to do so, we would have expected Rail Delivery Group to have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Rail Delivery Group,

I would like to request a copy of the RSP-6 Specification documentation for UK Rail Ticket Barcodes.

Yours faithfully,
Stuart Bain

Hay, Derek,

1 Attachment

Mr Bain

 

I understand you are requesting under the auspice of ‘Freedom of
information’ details regarding barcoding within the rail industry?

 

Just to be clear FOI does not apply to RDG, if you require details of rail
industry standards you will need to be either a TOC, TIS Supplier or a
3^rd party retailer and it will also require a call into our accreditation
and standards team to discuss in details and rational for your
requirements.

 

Regards

 

 

Derek Hay

Head of Service Assurance, Customer Portfolio Directorate | Rail Delivery
Group

020 7841 8289 | 07810 156270 | [1][email address] |

2^nd Floor, 200 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4HD

[2]NationalRail.co.uk | [3]Railcard.co.uk | [4]DaysOutGuide.co.uk |
[5]raildeliverygroup.com

 

 

[6]Capture

 

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References

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Dear Mr Hay,

Thank you for your response. I do understand that the Rail Delivery Group is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, Rail Delivery Group has a significant role in regulating and controlling national infrastructure and has already made available several specifications, documents and data in order to facilitate innovation in the rail sector. The Rail Delivery Group has stated "We support the principle of transparency and putting more information in the public domain." - https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/about-...

I also understand the requirement to be accredited in order to issue mobile/print at home rail tickets. As I explained in another e-email (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...), my use case is to be able to decode the data on the ticket barcode only.

It is my understanding that ticket barcode data is secured using asymmetric cryptography (public-key cryptography) and therefore the security of the ticket is dependent on the management of private keys by ticket issuers and not on the methodology of encoding and decoding the data contained in the barcode. Providing the decoding specification should not weaken the security of issued tickets in any way whatsoever.

In fact, the technical specification for European Rail Tickets which includes details of barcodes is currently available at: http://www.era.europa.eu/Document-Regist...

RDG itself publishes the technical specification for the issuing, checking and validation of ITSO Smart Media: https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/...

Please consider releasing details of the RSP6 barcode encoding/decoding details in the spirit of transparency and innovation.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Bain

Hay, Derek,

Mr Bain

 

Can you confirm if you are working on behalf of a TOC, if so they can
provide us with the ‘introduction’ and scope of work you are covering

 

Thank you.

 

Derek Hay

Head of Service Assurance, Customer Portfolio Directorate | Rail Delivery
Group

[1][email address] |

2^nd Floor, 200 Aldersgate Street, London EC1A 4HD

 

From: Stuart Bain [mailto:[FOI #486008 email]]
Sent: 19 June 2018 12:03
To: Hay, Derek <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Rail Delivery Group-1/378971-RSP-6 Specification for Barcodes

 

This message originated from outside your organization

Dear Mr Hay,

Thank you for your response. I do understand that the Rail Delivery Group
is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. However, Rail Delivery
Group has a significant role in regulating and controlling national
infrastructure and has already made available several specifications,
documents and data in order to facilitate innovation in the rail sector.
The Rail Delivery Group has stated "We support the principle of
transparency and putting more information in the public domain." -
[2]https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/about-...

I also understand the requirement to be accredited in order to issue
mobile/print at home rail tickets. As I explained in another e-email
([3]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...),
my use case is to be able to decode the data on the ticket barcode only.

It is my understanding that ticket barcode data is secured using
asymmetric cryptography (public-key cryptography) and therefore the
security of the ticket is dependent on the management of private keys by
ticket issuers and not on the methodology of encoding and decoding the
data contained in the barcode. Providing the decoding specification should
not weaken the security of issued tickets in any way whatsoever.

In fact, the technical specification for European Rail Tickets which
includes details of barcodes is currently available at:
[4]http://www.era.europa.eu/Document-Regist...

RDG itself publishes the technical specification for the issuing, checking
and validation of ITSO Smart Media:
[5]https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/...

Please consider releasing details of the RSP6 barcode encoding/decoding
details in the spirit of transparency and innovation.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Bain

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Hay,

I am not working on behalf of a TOC. My request is as an individual.

Yours sincerely,
Stuart Bain