Railcards are going Digital

[NSEFAN]

How would you cope with the 59 and 3/4-year-old who wants to book cheap advances to celebrate their 60th birthday when they are then eligible for a senior railcard. Or people who use rail infrequently and might purchase railcards with gaps between validity.

You could allow railcards to be purchased for future validity in the same way we can buy advances in, erm, advance.

The 59.75 year old could purchase a railcard to start on their 60th birthday, for example. Provided the validity of the ticket and railcard intersect, the transaction can be allowed to continue.

 

[philthetube]

How long before Battery packs and cables beco,e part of ticket checkers equipment?

 

[bavvo]

How on earth can you have two copies (one electronic one paper) of a non photo card railcard, that just asking for fraudulent use.


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Why do they even have non photocard railcards? That's the more obvious question. Include a photo and your issue is solved.

 

[Simon11]

Does anything think that this brief could be a prank (rather late for an April fools...)?

Why would RDG use faces of two politicians to promote a digital railcard? They should be neutral, and just use a random persons face.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Does anything think that this brief could be a prank (rather late for an April fools...)?

Why would RDG use faces of two politicians to promote a digital railcard? They should be neutral, and just use a random persons face.

Isn't this an internal brief therefore not meant to be seen by the public? Certainly we've used celebrities and cartoon characters for internal use before.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

You could allow railcards to be purchased for future validity in the same way we can buy advances in, erm, advance.

The 59.75 year old could purchase a railcard to start on their 60th birthday, for example. Provided the validity of the ticket and railcard intersect, the transaction can be allowed to continue.

Indeed.

At the moment though, as you probably know (I didn't – hence the following reply):

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Thank you for your email.

To be eligible for a Senior Railcard a person must be 60 years old or older on the day they apply for a Senior Railcard. Neither station staff nor the Railcard website can issue Senior Railcards in advance of an applicant's sixtieth birthday.

If you require any further assistance please contact us.

Thank you
Kind regards

(redacted)

RailcardHelp@atoc.org

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Isn't this an internal brief therefore not meant to be seen by the public? Certainly we've used celebrities and cartoon characters for internal use before.

Which category would you put that pair in?

 

[curly42]

I dont use an Iphone

I don't have a mobile phone of any type.

Then again,the only tickets I use are my free passes.

 

[Welly]

They are the LAST two people you'd expect to share a Two Together!

This is for these two to get discount to travel on the Gravy Train.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Why would RDG use faces of two politicians to promote a digital railcard? They should be neutral, and just use a random persons face.

Seems pretty neutral, since they used a leader from each side. I believe the term is humour. Not a lot of it in the rail industry these days, let them have this!

 

[mailbyrail]

Yes, it's clearly an alternative - at the moment.
If everyone says 'what a good idea' at this stage, then before long that will be translated into 'it's what everybody wants'. That will be then seen as carte blanche to do away with the old fashioned version.
No question that the two in parallel are a big step forward, but there's a whole host of reasons why it mustn't become the only product in future

 

[Wallsendmag]

Unfortunately the railways are proposing rounding up people who don't use iPhones and publicly flogging them. It is currently in the Secretary of State's 'in tray', and Grayling is expected to approve the measure.

No apparently we iPhone users are a pain Android is the future.


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[LiftFan]

I'm definitely all for moving things to mobile - I have a mobile monthly ticket for the bus. I have sometimes had the problem of a flat battery, but fortunately enough the driver is my morning one and he knows I have prepaid.

 

[kieron]

In what way? If it shows both people who are on teh railcard then it works. Theres even a picture to show you how this would work.

I was thinking in terms of "the person with my railcard has just popped to the toilet. She should be back by Swindon". I'm sure the full brief will make things clearer, though.

 

[Llanigraham]

To be honest, it would help if people were required to have a railcard when purchasing/collecting tickets. It would solve the majority of cases of missing/forgotten railcards, since people will generally keep their railcard and ticket together.

If railcards and tickets were combined into a single app which covered tickets for the whole industry, that would be even better. Better still would be to expand to ticketing for public transport operators. Pure fantasy of course...

And how would that work with tickets bought on the 'net or at a machine?

 

[Clip]

I was thinking in terms of "the person with my railcard has just popped to the toilet. She should be back by Swindon". I'm sure the full brief will make things clearer, though.

So the same situation that could occur with a paper card then?

 

[Puffing Devil]

Ok then if you are being pedantic about it then yes it would be a replacement BUT as yet they are nto stopping to use paper cards so its your choice.

Indeed, it is my choice. And I never said otherwise - I simply expressed a preference not to replace my current card.

It's no wonder people get into trouble with not reading things properly on the forum and jumping to their own interpretations

 

[Puffing Devil]

I'm definitely all for moving things to mobile - I have a mobile monthly ticket for the bus. I have sometimes had the problem of a flat battery, but fortunately enough the driver is my morning one and he knows I have prepaid.

Good luck with that on a train when you will not have the luxury of the same staff on the train every day who "know you have prepaid".

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Yes, it's clearly an alternative - at the moment.
If everyone says 'what a good idea' at this stage, then before long that will be translated into 'it's what everybody wants'. That will be then seen as carte blanche to do away with the old fashioned version.
No question that the two in parallel are a big step forward, but there's a whole host of reasons why it mustn't become the only product in future

And there is no reason to assume that it will. So long as tickets are available in a printed form, they will be able to print railcards.

Most major events you go to these days have 'print at home' tickets which 99% of people use, but you can still go to the box office and get a proper one in person, or order one to be posted to you.

Books have not been replaced by kindles, DVDs by Netflix or board games by video games....

 

[trevmonk]

Quote:
Dear Sir/ Madam,

Thank you for your email.

To be eligible for a Senior Railcard a person must be 60 years old or older on the day they apply for a Senior Railcard. Neither station staff nor the Railcard website can issue Senior Railcards in advance of an applicant's sixtieth birthday.

If you require any further assistance please contact us.

Thank you
Kind regards

(redacted)

RailcardHelp@atoc.org


They got that wrong. You can buy a senior railcard online two weeks before your 60th birthday (although not use it until the big day)

 

[bearhugger]

I have an adequate Android phone on Vodafone pay-as-you-go which cost me £25 ..... No use for games and has limited storage for Apps. But handy as a phone that will also enable me to have internet access when travelling away from home on holiday etc (the only time I need it or, indeed, usually carry it)
.

My last phone (iPhone 4) only had 8GB memory /storage and it got to the point where i had to to delete all the apps in order to update the Operating System (OS), so I could have the latest security (as well as all the extra bells & whistles they stick in too).

But this raises another related issue - how many apps do we need for fairly local / regional travel? For me, i could have

• Northern
• TransPennine Express
• National Rail Enquiries
• Stagecoach (bus)
• Arriva (bus)
• A local taxi
• Virgin East Coast

And that's on top of any other apps!

 

[kieron]

So the same situation that could occur with a paper card then?

It depends on the individual, I suppose. I'd usually have my own ticket myself, and keep the railcard with whoever is staying in the carriage. I wouldn't do something like that with a mobile 'phone. It may affect you differently.

Of course, we will have to wait to find out how they're actually going to implement this.

 

[robbeech]

It depends on the individual, I suppose. I'd usually have my own ticket myself, and keep the railcard with whoever is staying in the carriage. I wouldn't do something like that with a mobile 'phone. It may affect you differently.

Of course, we will have to wait to find out how they're actually going to implement this.

That is all well and good, and would be (and is) the way i look at it. However there was a debacle on Sunday during a ticket check on a London to Edinburgh VTEC service. I was sat in coach H and the lady was checking all tickets, including anyone walking towards the toilet or the on board shop. One person had a two together discounted ticket but his partner had the card, he was asked to go and get the card immediately, luckily they were only in F. I'm fully with the guard on this, but its difficult to know i that situation who should keep the card if one is going for a walk. If they had been in coach B i would understand if he was a little annoyed.

 

[TUC]

That is all well and good, and would be (and is) the way i look at it. However there was a debacle on Sunday during a ticket check on a London to Edinburgh VTEC service. I was sat in coach H and the lady was checking all tickets, including anyone walking towards the toilet or the on board shop. One person had a two together discounted ticket but his partner had the card, he was asked to go and get the card immediately, luckily they were only in F. I'm fully with the guard on this, but its difficult to know i that situation who should keep the card if one is going for a walk. If they had been in coach B i would understand if he was a little annoyed.

I think I would have suggested that the guard comes back in a few minutes when my partner had returned.

 

[infobleep]

They are the LAST two people you'd expect to share a Two Together!

I assume Paper/Plastic railcards will still be available?

I hope they got permission to use photographs of them. Hehe. I do like a sense of houmur.

 

[infobleep]

I didn't see the word "replace" anywhere in that brief. So, not yet then.

Fannying around to find the phone, then entering the PIN to get past the LockScreen, then searching for the railcard app (as it's not on the home screen of the device), then opening the app and then selecting the correct menu options to display the railcard details to the guard, takes how much less time than simply showing them a piece of card in your wallet/purse/railcard holder?

Hmm.

Just because it can be done, it doesn't mean it should be done.

I take your point. For some reason I was never went a my Waitrose card so I just use the app on my phone. Of course most if not all stores have fixed readers so they end up having to type the number in. As for most other stores when I go have my tens of store cards with me.

Storing cards on my phone saves wallet space but it does take longer to process.

Still I do use contactless where shops provide it and I do speed up transactions that way. Not all shops offer contactless of course.

 

[infobleep]

I assume this won't apply to gold cards or gold card records which are all paper. The gold card record being what is issued when one has an Oyster. I guess that could go digital at least as no ticket on it.

 

[infobleep]

But when I go out, I take my wallet every time, I regularly leave my phone at home.
If it's another way to issue a 'card' then fine, but if I'm expected to have it only on my phone, then that's one less card sale and several hundred pounds less ticket sales every year. The car is parked outside my door.

I have my season ticket attached to me by string onto my trousers, in order not to lose it. It seems to work. I would do the same to be mobile if I could.

I suspect more people have their mobile with them constantly than don't. I don't give out my landline number as I just use my mobile. Hence I like to have my mobile with me.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I hope they got permission to use photographs of them. Hehe. I do like a sense of houmur.

Zero need to get any such permission.

 

[infobleep]

What about those who do not have a mobile - do they need to buy one in order to get a railcard?

I can foresee many issues with lost phones, broken phones, flat batteries and crashing apps.

No different to faded rail cards. Rail cards left at home etc. Etc.