Network Railcard - cannot book beyond 16th May

[binary0110]

I am trying to book a single ticket from London King's Cross to Cambridge on 17th May with a Network Railcard. I am unable to do so - the discount won't apply. 16th May works but no dates beyond 17th May work.

Any ideas?

 

[MrJeeves]

My first guess is that Cambridge South isn't in the list of Network Railcard stations, and from the May timetable trains are timed at this station which is breaking journey planner's checks for whether a Network Railcard can apply to the journey.

Edit: My guess was correct. Someone will be on their way to fix it shortly, I hope.

 

[Adam Williams]

@MrJeeves's hunch is correct.

You might presume there would be some validation here - if you add a new location with lat/lng that roughly falls inside some polylines defining the Network Railcard area, PMS asks you "Hmm, should there maybe a railcard geography record here?". Or perhaps some automated regression tests on common/popular flows to ensure the results remain as you expect them to be.

There's really very little thought given to data quality in the rail industry, though - which is how we end up with problems like this. Or PlusBus locations not being in the Network Railcard area.

 

[MrJeeves]

There's really very little thought given to data quality in the rail industry, though - which is how we end up with problems like this. Or PlusBus locations not being in the Network Railcard area.

I'm sure the same mistake won't be made with Cambridge South+Bus whenever that's added, right?

 

[Adam Williams]

If you have booked on the forum site (or another Raileasy/TrainSplit property) we have done some queries to work out who has been overcharged due to this data error, and will reach out to affected customers to ensure they can rebook at the lower price they are entitled to pay, without any admin fee or penalty.

We will do another sweep when RDG eventually sort the data out to mop up any remaining bookings.

 

[Hadders]

Getting Gold Card discounts enabled at Coventry Arena was challenge when it opened a few years ago. I lost count of the number of phone calls and emails I made!

 

[binary0110]

Thanks for the replies - does anyone know when this issue will be fixed and who is responsible for fixing it? I am surprised just how hard it is to get tickets to price correctly nowadays. I never had these sorts of issues a few years ago.

 

[MrJeeves]

Thanks for the replies - does anyone know when this issue will be fixed and who is responsible for fixing it? I am surprised just how hard it is to get tickets to price correctly nowadays. I never had these sorts of issues a few years ago.

It's been referred to the correct people, so hopefully will be fixed at the start of this coming week.

You'll be able to get tickets with the discount from a ticket office or a dumb ticket machine, but if you're using the Network Railcard there's no benefit for you buying this far in advance anyway given it doesn't provide any discount on Advance tickets.

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== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Mar 2025 ==

The required changes have been made and journey planners should start selling tickets as expected from tomorrow.