I think it's more accurately to call it RFID rather than NFC. It operates on the range of frequencies that NFC also uses but this particular application (access ticket) doesn't require any NFC features. So I doubt they went and made the readers NFC and took the penalties (such as the greatly reduced reading distance) for no practical reason.
As a simple rule of thumb, if the ticket works from more than 5cm away it's most likely not NFC.
If you can use your smartphone instead of a ticket then it's NFC.