BRFares Invalid Railcard Specified for 2nd March

[trainJam]

Attached image shows the problem. Does anyone know why the railcard discounts aren't working for the fares from 2nd March?

URL:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

 

[CyrusWuff]

With the increase to most Railcard prices from 2nd March, RDG sent out updated Railcard data which prevents discounted fares for 2nd March onwards from showing until 2nd March.

This has now been corrected but will take a couple of days to flow through.

 

[MrJeeves]

I was reliably informed that this should be resolved overnight tonight.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I was reliably informed that this should be resolved overnight tonight.

The BRFares problem of "Invalid Railcard" for post-Mar2 fares is still there at 1000 today.

 

[kkong]

While BRFares and railcards are under discussion, does anyone have a full list of the codes the site uses for each type of railcard and discount?

e.g. what is the code for "Club 50 Web - ScotRail"?

There is a list on the site here, but it seems to be incomplete.

 

[MrJeeves]

While BRFares and railcards are under discussion, does anyone have a full list of the codes the site uses for each type of railcard and discount?

Below is the vast majority of them. Some codes also exist which aren't used so much as Railcards but just as other forms of discounts such as "SGU" which is LNER's "small group" discount.

Code	Railcard name
TSU	16-17 Saver
YNG	16-25 Railcard
W18	18 Saver - Transport for Wales
TST	26-30 Railcard
NGC	Annual Gold Card / Gold Record Card
CRC	Cambrian Railcard
G5O	Club 50 Web - Greater Anglia
OC5	Club 50 Web - ScotRail
CTD	Cotswold Line Railcard
DRD	Dales Railcard
DCG	Devon & Cornwall Gold Card
DCP	Durham Concessionary Pass
DCR	Devon & Cornwall Railcard
DIC	Disabled Child Railcard
DIS	Disabled Persons Railcard
EVC	Esk Valley Railcard
FAM	Family & Friends Railcard
GS3	GroupSave
HOW	Heart of Wales Railcard
HRC	Highland Railcard
WHC	Highland Railcard : West Scotland
HMF	HM Forces Railcard
JCP	Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Card
CUR	MyCumbria Card
NEW	Network Railcard
PBR	Pembrokeshire Railcard
STL	Season Loyalty Discount
SRN	Senior Railcard
SSP	South Yorkshire 16-18 Zoom Travel Pass
WSC	Student Railcard - Transport for Wales
SYD	SY Concession Disabled
SYS	SY Concession Senior
WSH	TfW Annual Season Railcard
WGC	TfW Concessionary Bus Pass
TAD	Travel Agent Discount
2TR	Two Together Railcard
UTF	Under 25 Advance
VLS	Valleys Senior Railcard
VLC	Valleys Student Railcard
VET	Veterans Railcard
WYD	West Yorkshire Disabled Concessionary Discount
WYS	West Yorkshire Senior Concessionary Discount
WMS	WY Under 19 PhotoCard
SRY	Young Scot National Entitlement Card

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Feb 2025 ==

The BRFares problem of "Invalid Railcard" for post-Mar2 fares is still there at 1000 today.

RDG's fares data arrived late (only shortly after your post) but didn't actually resolve the issue.

 

[kkong]

Below is the vast majority of them.

Many thanks for that.

 

[Starmill]

This made it to at least some live retail systems, resulting in an uncountable number of lost sales. Probably small, but a minimum of one.

 

[kkong]

With the increase to most Railcard prices from 2nd March, RDG sent out updated Railcard data which prevents discounted fares for 2nd March onwards from showing until 2nd March.

Sounds like the typical level of IT competence from RDG!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Fairly sure that the (post increase) railcard discounted fares were being correctly shown on BRFares when I looked up some prices for travel on a date in mid March back on 19th February 2025.

 

[MrJeeves]

Fairly sure that the (post increase) railcard discounted fares were being correctly shown on BRFares when I looked up some prices for travel on a date in mid March back on 19th February 2025.

Yes, the data was correct until Tuesday morning this week, which was when RDG attempted to insert the new Railcard pricing into the fares data.

 

[davetheguard]

My local station ticket office (GWR) is having the same problem at the moment, and has lost multiple ticket sales for travel from 2nd March as a result.

They too have been told it will be fixed tonight.

 

[800Travel]

Wondered what was going on - good to see that work is being done to sort it though!

 

[redreni]

Doesn't really affect me as my only Railcard is a Network Railcard, which only gives discounts on walk-up fares anyway, so the issue can be avoided by waiting.

Must be extremely annoying if trying to book an Advance with a Railcard discount, though!

 

[robbeech]

Wonder how many passengers will panic and buy a ticket without a railcard and pay the extra?

 

[MrJeeves]

Wonder how many passengers will panic and buy a ticket without a railcard and pay the extra?

Or not even notice...?

 

[Wallsendmag]

I was reliably informed that this should be resolved overnight tonight.

Or the day after apparently. Not affecting most TIS though.

 

[MrJeeves]

Or the day after apparently.

PMS were a bit optimistic evidently!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Feb 2025 ==

---

The fixed data has gone live tonight.

 

[infobleep]

Or the day after apparently. Not affecting most TIS though.

Why didn't it affect most TIS?

 

[MrJeeves]

They didn't it affect most TIS?

The spec is open to interpretation on whether the "quote from date" should be used to determine whether or not Railcard discounts should be available for purchase before that date, or whether it only applies to the pricing info of the Railcard itself, as I understand it.

Some TISes seemingly ignored the date for determining whether a discount was available, or they "fixed" the data themselves as a result of automated testing prior to updating their fares data nightly.

The Railcard data is a standalone file, so it can easily be replaced with a "correct" copy with a date that allows sale of discounted tickets while still using any updated ticket information present in the data.

 

[talldave]

The spec is open to interpretation on whether the "quote from date" should be used to determine whether or not Railcard discounts should be available for purchase before that date, or whether it only applies to the pricing info of the Railcard itself, as I understand it.

Some TISes seemingly ignored the date for determining whether a discount was available, or they "fixed" the data themselves as a result of automated testing prior to updating their fares data nightly.

The Railcard data is a standalone file, so it can easily be replaced with a "correct" copy with a date that allows sale of discounted tickets while still using any updated ticket information present in the data.

I thought these systems were all accredited and tested - therefore they should operate in one defined way?

That, and the fact that RDG managed to screw up and release the data, implies the process is shoddy and uncontrolled. Really not good enough from an industry that treats its paying customers so badly.

 

[MrJeeves]

I thought these systems were all accredited and tested - therefore they should operate in one defined way?

They're tested and accredited, yes, but it's not like RDG get a full code listing and go through all your logic with a fine tooth comb.

There's a big list of tests which must pass for a TIS to be accredited, but it doesn't mean they cover every single potential eventuality or every single potential combination of industry data. Maybe a new requirement will be added after this! The fact that the data has been rolled back suggests that RDG understand the data causes and issue, and that the TISes affected aren't at-fault for behaving in the way they did (no matter which way that was).

The spec in question is public, so you can go and read it if you'd like: https://www.rspaccreditation.org/do...Data+Feed+Interface+Specification.pdf&ID=1301

That, and the fact that RDG managed to screw up and release the data, implies the process is shoddy and uncontrolled. Really not good enough from an industry that treats its paying customers so badly.

Not only that, but the first rollback initially failed and resulted in fares data being provided to TISes about 10 or 11am instead of overnight as normal, without the needed fix. At the end of the day, though, it's humans editing this data (through a GUI thankfully), and humans can make mistakes.

 

[Haywain]

I thought these systems were all accredited and tested - therefore they should operate in one defined way?

They are accredited on the results they produce rather than how they get there.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

There's a big list of tests which must pass for a TIS to be accredited, but it doesn't mean they cover every single potential eventuality or every single potential combination of industry data. Maybe a new requirement will be added after this! The fact that the data has been rolled back suggests that RDG understand the data causes and issue, and that the TISes affected aren't at-fault for behaving in the way they did (no matter which way that was).

It's also the case that the cost of Railcards hasn't changed for a very long time - so the relevant programming code and data hasn't needed to cope with a change. So there's been no reason for problems to emerge.

This is hardly a new concept - it escapes me whether I was with BR or Littlewoods as a computer programmer at the time, but the first change in ages to the VAT rate caused more grief than it should have done. And me and computer programming went our separate ways more than 20 years ago.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It's also the case that the cost of Railcards hasn't changed for a very long time - so the relevant programming code and data hasn't needed to cope with a change. So there's been no reason for problems to emerge.

This is hardly a new concept - it escapes me whether I was with BR or Littlewoods as a computer programmer at the time, but the first change in ages to the VAT rate caused more grief than it should have done. And me and computer programming went our separate ways more than 20 years ago.

Nothing to do with prices just WEF and WEU date (with effect from and with effect until) which has been used fairly frequently with the new Railcards ecently

 

[A Challenge]

Nothing to do with prices just WEF and WEU date (with effect from and with effect until) which has been used fairly frequently with the new Railcards ecently

Presumably with a difference that stopping people from buying Discounted tickets before the go live date was the intended result last time, and they've just done the same thing again when wanting a different result?