I recently got a disabled person's railcard and had it added to my Oyster card last week at Wood Green tube. Today I made my first peak time pay as you go journey since and, surprise surprise, it turns out to have been added as a standard NR railcard, so I didn't get the 1/3rd off the cap. Obviously I'll have to go back to the station (TFL customer services were friendly but unhelpful) but I'm sceptical that they'll know how to correct it. I did query why they were adding it as just NR Railcard when they did it initially, but there didn't seem to be a Disabled Person's Railcard option in the list of railcards to add. Can anyone give any pointers to what I should be telling the station staff to get the railcard added properly? Or any tips on stations where staff do apparently know how to do this?
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Disabled Person's Railcard on Oyster
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Marylebone NR ticket office has traditionally been staffed by very knowledgable people. Unlike the vast majority of NR stations, they have full Oyster capabilities due to the intertwining of their services via Amersham with TfL's Zones.
I’m confused as to the issue. There is only one Railcard option which the staff seem to have correctly added; that of National Railcard, this does not give any discount off of peak time single trips (only from off-peak trips or off of the off-peak daily cap). To the OP; what discount are you expecting?
swt_passenger
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This post says there’s a separate setting for a Disabled Railcard, but something‘s ringing a bell with me that they need to scroll further down the options to find it.
Tube station refuse to add railcard discount to Oyster card
Last night I tried to add a disabled railcard discount to an Oyster card and it didn’t go well. Two of the stations I went to had no staff available to do it, and the third refused due ‘me already being in possession of a freedom pass.’ Is there anything I can do to get my discount, do I just...
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According to TFL, with a Disabled Railcard you get 1/3rd off pay as you go travel, not just off-peak pay as you go travel as with other railcards. Bit disappointing if they turn out to have been misrepresenting their own policies, as the peak time discount is a large part of the reason it was worthwhile buying the card.
swt_passenger
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I‘ll copy this to @MikeWh our resident Oyster expert in case he has a quick answer.
No quick answer. There are two railcard options, the second one I think is described as "Disabled Railcard" but I'm not sure and not anywhere near London at the moment. I'd take the Oyster card and railcard to another tube station and ask them to apply the correct discount. Once that is done then go back to the helpline and ask if they will refund the overpayment on the journey you made because of the error by their staff.
Staff at Kings Cross St Pancras are normally reasonably knowledgable, in my experience. If you get the staff to do it at a ticket machine you can watch the screen and check they select 'Disabled Railcard' rather than 'National Railcard & Gold Cards'
There is also the Visitor Centre at Kings Cross St Pancras who I think can do this as well (although not 100% certain).
There is also the Visitor Centre at Kings Cross St Pancras who I think can do this as well (although not 100% certain).
NR Ticket Offices haven't been able to do anything Oyster-related since late 2019/early 2020 (slightly later for London Overground I believe) as Cubic discontinued their FasTIS ticket issuing system and were unwilling/unable to licence the Oyster tech to other TIS suppliers.
I had the same problem several months ago the CSA insisting that there was only a National railcard option. I visited another station who were able to select the disabled railcard option with no problem. From memory I think it was very near the top of the list of the drop-down menu on the screen. Just be persistent!
swt_passenger
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Did you perhaps see how easy it was to select on the staff menu? It might help us advise other people…
The option for Disabled Railcard was right there, impossible to miss. It really didn't seem to be there when the Wood Green staff member tried, so much so that my suspicion was that he was looking at another menu entirely. He had had a preliminary wibble about photocards so I wonder now if he was looking at a photocard menu and not the correct one for railcards. Only a guess though.
Once the CSA presents their card to the Passenger Operated Machine (POM) and inputs their password, they are presented with the following screen
(The image show numerous options - PAYG
They would then press Discount Entitlements (top middle) and select which Discount they want to put onto the passenger's Oyster Card.
Ticketing & Revenue Book 3 also has guidance regarding Gold Card card entitlement.
(Image shows text as follows:
If a customer has a valid JCP or Bus & Tram discount photocard, a Senior, HM Forces, 16-25, 26-30, Disabled Persons Railcard or an Annual Gold Card, the appropiate discount entitlement can be set on the AFM, MFM or TVM. by selecting the "Discount Entitlements" option.
Holders of an Annual Gold Card are entitled to have the NR Railcard set on their Oyster card, on production of their Gold Card record card or Annual season ticket.
If the customer has a valid Annual Travelcard on their Oyster card, but does not have the record card, you can still set the NR Railcard discount on the Oyster card providing it has the same expiry date as their Annual ticket.)
In all honesty, this is bread and butter stuff for most CSAs at major stations - especially those near mainline stations like King's Cross, Victoria, Waterloo, etc. I would estimate that I could do 15-20 a week sometimes. It takes a minute or two at worst, so whilst I acknowledge the difficulties expressed on these forums getting the proper entitlements added, I am suprised.
The main problem is finding someone with the training to do it - you have a much better chance at Gateway Stations over some single working Supervisor out in the sticks! (I know passengers shouldn't have to go hunting around for the best chance, but that's a discussion for another place, and has been done to death already IIRC.)
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It appears to be "PAYG Operations"
Good spot. I need to get to Specsavers.
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