Northern and prosecutions for railcard use before 10am

[redreni]

Straight from the horses mouth as it were, the very journalist that was quoted in the first post of this thread.

Amusing that he wrote them some code that would add a warning message to qualify the 'you can use this ticket at any time' messaging that comes with the Railcard-discounted tickets. That is all that is required, here.

While I would like to agree with the overall conclusion that everything should be swept away and replaced with something much simpler and with a lower median fare, we do have to remember that's not on the cards and simplification without appropriate funding for overall fares reductions would be a disaster.

As an aside, it's also incoherent to call for simplification while also saying the PAYG scheme for the North West should have gone ahead and been rolled out. As we know, while PAYG is valued by many people, it does add another layer of complexity to fares since it comes with its own distinct set of rules and, as a regional scheme, it could not replace tickets. It was said that the cases highlighted by Mr Fifield wouldn't have happened in London because of PAYG, but that would only have helped if the passengers were travelling wholly within the Oyster area and had their Railcard discount set on their Oyster account and if it made sense for them to use PAYG instead of buying a ticket (which it doesn't always). It wouldn't have helped with the Network Railcard example highlighted later in the episode as Network Railcard discounts can only be obtained by buying a ticket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Amusing that he wrote them some code that would add a warning message to qualify the 'you can use this ticket at any time' messaging that comes with the Railcard-discounted tickets. That is all that is required, here.

Yep. There's a very simple "string table" type change to be made - to change "valid at any time" to read "valid at any time, subject to Railcard restrictions if purchased with Railcard discount". Five minutes to fix. Then the app isn't showing misleading information which leads to this.

 

[signed]

Anecdotally, the Thameslink search engine

Booking Engine

ticket.thameslinkrailway.com

now displays a full-page warning about minimum fares and al.

Please be aware, a minimum fare and / or additional restrictions may apply to your ticket, including what time you can travel and the train services you can use.

If you use a Railcard, Annual Gold Card, GroupSave discount, London Freedom Pass, 60+ London Oyster photocard or a Veterans Oyster photocard to save money on your journey.

 

[furlong]

It's a start, but that website still misrepresents the intention.

The pop-up should be telling people that some of the information provided by the website is currently WRONG and they are urgently working to fix it (and reassure people that, under consumer law, you won't be penalised if you rely on the incorrect information they are providing and how to contact them to sort it out if you think this has happened).

If you take the Victoria to Bolton example, and select the 10:08 with a 16-25 railcard, it offers the discounted Anytime return and still says "Flexible ticket with no time restrictions on when you can travel" and even has a button "Services valid with this ticket" that shows you it is valid on all the earlier services (where it isn't meant to be valid).

 

[redreni]

Yeah, agree. You can't just say 'watch out, sometimes we lie!', think that solves it and go back to prosecuting people.

 

[signed]

It's a start, but that website still misrepresents the intention.

The pop-up should be telling people that some of the information provided by the website is currently WRONG and they are urgently working to fix it (and reassure people that, under consumer law, you won't be penalised if you rely on the incorrect information they are providing and how to contact them to sort it out if you think this has happened).

If you take the Victoria to Bolton example, and select the 10:08 with a 16-25 railcard, it offers the discounted Anytime return and still says "Flexible ticket with no time restrictions on when you can travel" and even has a button "Services valid with this ticket" that shows you it is valid on all the earlier services (where it isn't meant to be valid).

Indeed, it's a mess