TFW and Douglas ferry bookings issue with Railcards.

[BigCj34]

My partner and I booked two Economy return tickets from Zone B (any station in Cumbria) to Douglas, using the Sailrail deal and taking the ferry from Heysham. The fares for this are normally £115 for an Economy return from Zone B.

She booked the tickets on the Transport for Wales site, and put in both of her railcards, which were a 26-30 Railcard and a Veterans Railcard.

From what I have subsequently seen, a 26-30 Railcard does not offer a discount, but the Veterans Railcard offers a discount down to £83. However when both railcards were put in the site discounted both tickets to £83. She is not a named partner on my Veterans Railcard, and it looks like both tickets are going to require production of a Veterans Railcards even though she correctly input a Veterans Railcard plus her 26-30 Railcard.

What would be the best thing to do here? She has done the right thing but the website has produced a glitch, or incorrectly assumed she would be a named companion. Should I just explain this to the conductor before I hop on the train or is this a case of cancelling and rebooking (which comes at a cost). If she wasn't supposed to do it that way then that would not have been very obvious.

 

[alistairlees]

My partner and I booked two Economy return tickets from Zone B (any station in Cumbria) to Douglas, using the Sailrail deal and taking the ferry from Heysham. The fares for this are normally £115 for an Economy return from Zone B.

She booked the tickets on the Transport for Wales site, and put in both of her railcards, which were a 26-30 Railcard and a Veterans Railcard.

From what I have subsequently seen, a 26-30 Railcard does not offer a discount, but the Veterans Railcard offers a discount down to £83. However when both railcards were put in the site discounted both tickets to £83. She is not a named partner on my Veterans Railcard, and it looks like both tickets are going to require production of a Veterans Railcards even though she correctly input a Veterans Railcard plus her 26-30 Railcard.

What would be the best thing to do here? She has done the right thing but the website has produced a glitch, or incorrectly assumed she would be a named companion. Should I just explain this to the conductor before I hop on the train or is this a case of cancelling and rebooking (which comes at a cost). If she wasn't supposed to do it that way then that would not have been very obvious.

Although the error is with the TfW website (or, more accurately, the underlying data) I don't think you should risk travelling as one of your tickets is not valid and this could lead to issues. Instead you should contact TfW and ask them to help rectify the situation at no cost to you (as the issue was not your fault). This might take a bit of explaining and persistence as the customer service people are unlikely to understand the problem.

By way of a bit more explanation:
- there are two Veterans' railcards: one for one person (the holder) only and a second for the holder and a nominated companion
- however, there is only one of these in the rail industry data: the one for up to two people (so minimum 1 adult and maximum 2 adults in the data)
- consequently, when you apply a Veterans' Railcard discount to two people travelling then the Veterans' Railcard discount will always be applied to both people - even if it is a Veterans' Railcard for just one person

The only ways round this are:
- to book separately; or
- to always check your ticket discounts, especially in a case like this where another railcard, giving the same discount, is presented; or
- for online interfaces to require users of railcards to specify which passengers the railcard discount should be applied to - this would, for most people, make online ticket purchase needlessly complex though.

There is of course another solution - for Rail Delivery Group to create two types of Veteran's Railcard ("1-person" and "2-person") in the data. The holder could then select the correct type and the problems would instantly disappear. No-one would need to do any development work either. I suggested this to RDG a year or two ago and was told "no".

 

[BigCj34]

Thank you. I have tried ringing them up and they are going to look into it today and call back, but as it stood they could only see one Veterans railcard applied. There would be no other way for me to see how it applied without picking up the ticket, but the price paid of £166 for both would suggest it has been applied both times and therefore needs to be valid for both users.

Of course it may well be okay if I approach the guard before boarding the train, but would need to do that twice for each journey and always a small chance there could be an issue.

 

[alistairlees]

Thank you. I have tried ringing them up and they are going to look into it today and call back, but as it stood they could only see one Veterans railcard applied. There would be no other way for me to see how it applied without picking up the ticket, but the price paid of £166 for both would suggest it has been applied both times and therefore needs to be valid for both users.

Of course it may well be okay if I approach the guard before boarding the train, but would need to do that twice for each journey and always a small chance there could be an issue.

I wouldn't rely on falling on kindness of guards / ship staff for this. One of your tickets is invalid and you would be best off getting that fixed.

Given that the fares for a Sail Rail Economy Return ticket from Cumbria to Douglas are:
- £115 for an adult
- £83 for an adult with a VET railcard
- no discount on the adult fare for a 26-30 (TST) railcard
then I would get TfW to fix it. We can deduce from the amount you paid that the VET discount has been applied to both tickets, there is no need to collect them. The email confirmation from TfW should state this too.

As I said, they will have difficulties undersatanding this.

 

[1D54]

I take it these tickets are non refundable? If they are just and it's a small hit that has to be taken for the usual administration costs then do that and re-book. No way would i put myself at the mercy of inspection teams hoping for the best.

 

[Haywain]

as it stood they could only see one Veterans railcard applied.

One Veterans Railcard but applied to two passengers, most likely.

 

[alistairlees]

I take it these tickets are non refundable? If they are just and it's a small hit that has to be taken for the usual administration costs then do that and re-book. No way would i put myself at the mercy of inspection teams hoping for the best.

I don't think that the OP should have to pay any admin costs; this is primarily the fault of the industry. However, they may need to pay admin costs at first, to get the issue resolved in a timely manner, before seeking to recover those costs.

 

[AndrewE]

My experience with IoM tickets was that the website (ship only) offers were so cheap that it wasn't worth trying to get any sort of a through ticket, let alone a priv!

Just saying, in case it helps for another time.

 

[BigCj34]

They emailed my partner with this reply:

Good afternoon, in regards to the above booking I can see there is only one veterans rail card on the booking, I have priced up the journey with the 26/30 Rail card and it is exactly the same price so there is no need to get it changed, the tickets are actually on sale hence why its cheaper. Any problems get in touch, Thank you"

I collected the tickets today to be sure, and they all said Veterans Railcard on it, as I thought might happen. So not sure at all where TfW got that from!

 

[alistairlees]

They emailed my partner with this reply:

Good afternoon, in regards to the above booking I can see there is only one veterans rail card on the booking, I have priced up the journey with the 26/30 Rail card and it is exactly the same price so there is no need to get it changed, the tickets are actually on sale hence why its cheaper. Any problems get in touch, Thank you"

I collected the tickets today to be sure, and they all said Veterans Railcard on it, as I thought might happen. So not sure at all where TfW got that from!

They basically made it up.

To summarise:
- there is one Veterans' Railcard
- the VET discount has been applied to both tickets (which is in line with the data)
- it should not have been (but this is not your fault)
- your companion is not entitled to any discount, as the 26-30 Railcard which she holds does not discount this particular ticket

You will have to decide what to do!

 

[BigCj34]

Thanks for the responses. I am contacting TfW now to try and resolve this.

As stated it is not the best to have to board a train having to check with a guard each time (and whether the IoM Steam Packet company check railcards, I don't know), as there is a chance someone could say no! So rather get this sorted before of course, saves needless anxiety!

 

[Buzby]

My experience with IoM tickets was that the website (ship only) offers were so cheap that it wasn't worth trying to get any sort of a through ticket

I’m heading there next month and like you, the discounted Ship tickets made it a no brainer, as a Rail Sail price is based on the much higher flexible fare - I saved £22 by keeping this separate and using the Railcard discount only on the rail element.

 

[gray1404]

I wonder if you could take the response from Transport For Wales as permission to travel?

This situation is not of your making and you have tried all reasonable measures to try to resolve it. I personally was not draw anything to staff when checking tickets both on the train or at the ferry terminal. I would simply present both tickets with both rail cards.

If in the event there are any queries then you can show the correspondence from the retailer. If this does not resolve things then I would simply offer to buy a new ticket there and then and if they insist on reporting the matter then you have the record already of your contact with the retailer giving you permission to travel. I would expect anything to then be dropped or for any additional tickets purchased to be refunded.

If you remain concerned then I would suggest refunding the ticket in question through the usu channels and and then contacting Transport For Wales customer relations separately to seek a refund of any admin fee charged.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Mar 2026 ==

I've just checked the TfW website and the information there suggests they do not currently charge a fee for a refund of and rebook. It details the steps to follow.

 

[BigCj34]

So TfW did eventually get back to me after I picked up the tickets a day said that they both did require production of a valid Veterans Railcard. So they told me to post them back to them and rebook separately. They have raised an official complaint on my partner's behalf. Perhaps she will get something as a goodwill gesture, who knows.

 

[1D54]

Always good to hear a satisfactory conclusion but I'd send those tickets back via recorded delivery what with the state of the post these days.