Trainline railcards bot protection

[Benjwri]

Had a bit of an interesting one yesterday. When I clicked the 'railcards' section in the Trainline app it brought up a page saying that I had failed some check that I was a bot and refused to load into the railcard page. Multiple attempts resulted in the same issue. Luckily guard still accepted the ticket when I showed them what was happening, but I can imagine some staff may not. I suppose this thread is a bit of a warning for other members about this behaviour, which is absolutely bizarre given it is inside an app, and only on the railcards page. However I am also wondering had the staff member not shown discretion what is the recourse in this situation, would it count as a forgotten railcard, and therefore expire your 12 month opportunity? This being despite it being no fault of your own, and the railcard supposedly being downloaded to your phone and able to show offline?

(Suggestions of not using Trainline for railcards are unhelpful, I don't like them but do not have a choice for railcards)

 

[methecooldude]

I don't like them but do not have a choice for railcards

I have to question this, how come? There are a good few retailers of Railcards, why MUST you use Trainline? Are you getting free from Monzo or something?

Had a bit of an interesting one yesterday. When I clicked the 'railcards' section in the Trainline app it brought up a page saying that I had failed some check that I was a bot and refused to load into the railcard page. Multiple attempts resulted in the same issue.

Thats a bit odd, do you have any kind of VPN active on your phone as that might trip it up

However I am also wondering had the staff member not shown discretion what is the recourse in this situation, would it count as a forgotten railcard, and therefore expire your 12 month opportunity? This being despite it being no fault of your own, and the railcard supposedly being downloaded to your phone and able to show offline?

Don't see why not

 

[Bletchleyite]

Had a bit of an interesting one yesterday. When I clicked the 'railcards' section in the Trainline app it brought up a page saying that I had failed some check that I was a bot and refused to load into the railcard page. Multiple attempts resulted in the same issue. Luckily guard still accepted the ticket when I showed them what was happening, but I can imagine some staff may not. I suppose this thread is a bit of a warning for other members about this behaviour, which is absolutely bizarre given it is inside an app, and only on the railcards page. However I am also wondering had the staff member not shown discretion what is the recourse in this situation, would it count as a forgotten railcard, and therefore expire your 12 month opportunity? This being despite it being no fault of your own, and the railcard supposedly being downloaded to your phone and able to show offline?

It would be the forgotten Railcard policy, yes.

You might find it works offline if you put your phone in flight mode. It wasn't connected to a wifi network but not signed in was it?

 

[Benjwri]

Are you getting free from Monzo

Yes, and while I will be buying one to extend validity as much as possible as I age out of the railcard I obviously need to wait closer to my birthday to do this, so am tiding myself over with the railcard.

Thats a bit odd, do you have any kind of VPN active on your phone as that might trip it up

No, the only thing I can think of is I was using Crosscountry wifi at the time, because I never get signal in the voyagers. However dafter disconnecting and even using airplane mode the issue persisted.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 May 2026 ==

It would be the forgotten Railcard policy, yes.

I do think this is very poor given it is no fault of the passenger themselves.

You might find it works offline if you put your phone in flight mode.

This is something I will try in future and do this before I open the app.

It wasn't connected to a wifi network but not signed in was it?

Connected to Crosscountry wifi, but I had signed in long before my ticket was checked, and all other web pages were working normally.

 

[Bigdurian]

You could also try signing in on the actual Web page rather than the app.

 

[saismee]

Thats a bit odd, do you have any kind of VPN active on your phone as that might trip it up

This was my thought initially, though it may still be the same cause...

Connected to Crosscountry wifi, but I had signed in long before my ticket was checked, and all other web pages were working normally.

You share an IP address when connected to train WiFi, so it is possible that someone has done something to trigger a bot filter on that IP address and therefore you are flagged too. It may have only been on that specific page because it could be pinging a different server, or just has different security checks.

 

[Benjwri]

You could also try signing in on the actual Web page rather than the app.

Railcards can only be shown in the app?

You share an IP address when connected to train WiFi, so it is possible that someone has done something to trigger a bot filter on that IP address and therefore you are flagged too. It may have only been on that specific page because it could be pinging a different server, or just has different security checks.

Yes I was wondering this, not much choice for internet on CrossCountry! I'm more confused why Trainline has applied it to specifically this page. The app worked fine, it would let me search for tickets even, it was just the specific railcard page (Account > Railcards). Why that even is protected like that baffles me.

 

[saismee]

Railcards can only be shown in the app?

Yes I was wondering this, not much choice for internet on CrossCountry! I'm more confused why Trainline has applied it to specifically this page. The app worked fine, it would let me search for tickets even, it was just the specific railcard page (Account > Railcards). Why that even is protected like that baffles me.

Possibly a security reason? Did other account pages with your personal information open properly?

 

[Bletchleyite]

FWIW whenever I have any sort of problem like this if on wifi I switch to data. It almost always solves it (in this case it has a good chance of doing so even if it means no connection).

 

[Benjwri]

Possibly a security reason? Did other account pages with your personal information open properly?

I didn't check to be honest, I never book with them. Just tried using a function that would require internet to see.

FWIW whenever I have any sort of problem like this if on wifi I switch to data. It almost always solves it (in this case it has a good chance of doing so even if it means no connection).

Unfortunately it seemed to persist regardless of what I did. Once I got off at Bristol, and had signal outside the faraday cage, I tried again and it continued to show. It has disappeared checking this morning though.