Railcard silliness

[Kevo00]

I'm moving to Milton Keynes soon to start a new job as a lecturer at The Open University. So as I know I will still have to come into London quite a bit I thought it would be worthwhile to take out a Network Railcard, as I'm old to have a Young Person's card any longer and can no longer claim student status. So today I knew I'd have to do an NR journey between St Pancras and Cricklewood, so I downloaded the app form from the website and filled it in. I didn't have enough time to buy the card at St P's as my train was due, so I bought it when I got to Cricklewood as the ticket window was open. I handed over the form and the woman said 'I'm sorry, you need a new form, we don't take the internet ones.' So I had to fill in a new form, there in the cold, at Cricklewood station, where the booking office is just an open booth. Facepalm. Why issue the form via the net at all if its not acceptable? The form at the station was identical to the online form anyway. The only other place I've had this happen was when registering for a new GP, but you expect such incompetence from the NHS.

Sorry, just had to do a quick rant on it, even if it sounds trivial.

[John]

On Friday I went into the public transport office on the Airbus Hamburg Site (I just started a 6 month placement there) in order to get a season ticket for public transport within Hamburg.

Christ, the amount of forms I needed to fill in! She had to take my name and right that down on her bit of paper - I then had to write my name on the season ticket it and sign it, and sign another bit saying I had received the season ticket. I mean come on, is all this really necessary?
I mean I didn't even have a employee number yet as Airbus was being slow - the lady didn't care and said she was sure she would find me on the system! I mean that is completely unacceptable!

And the cost - because I haven't got the right student discount thing (its still in the post) I have to pay full price - a whopping €57.00 per month to access all public transport within Hamburg, something like 3 tube lines, 6 s-bahn lines, 3 a-train lines, huge chunks of the regional train network (DB trains and a few others), 649 bus routes and 6 ferry routes covering 8700km². And on weekends I can take someone with me on my ticket. Scandalous! What's worse is that this gets paid straight out of my salary, and my employer then goes and contributes just over €10 to the cost (so I pay €47). The Cheek! And when the studentdiscount comes through, I will pay a whopping €31 per month. Unbelievable! The Cheek!.


Note: This post may contain sarcasm, and a subtle dig at the stupidity of british public transport.

[noofnoof]

warning! the below post may contain agreement with the awesomeness of german public transport:

I went on student exchange to Germany over the christmas holidays for 6 weeks. I arrived in Essen, got greeted by my host family and taken home, they then gave me a card valid everywhere in Essen, and surrounding areas, for the whole 6 weeks. apparently the school my host went to bought it for me and mailed it to them.

the germans seem to have this you buy it and it's valid everywhere mentality, they seem to recognise that there is only so much public transport you can actually use.

Also their Trams-go-Underground were really good, the longest I ever had to wait was 20mins, and the second longest was 3 mins. oh and the time the train derailed in front of mine and I had to get out 1 stop early and walk 500 metres. oh the humanity.

[orudge]

I like the fact one can get a Young Per... sorry, 16-25 Railcard online now, instead of having to print out a form and take it down to the station, along with a physical photo. (The latter is the annoying bit really.)

[audigex]

Can I just hijack this thread slightly?

You know the pre-10am minimum fare? What exactly is that?

Is it that if you travel before 10am, your fare has to be over £12 before you get the discount?

[61653]

There's a similarly annoying thing with WYMetrocards. I use a weekly 2-5 card, giving countywide bus use and all rail services EXCEPT Leeds Station. I'm on a course in Bradford, so the Leeds thing isn't an issue. But trying to renew it at any Northern managed station (Bradford Interchange/Halifax/Hebden Bridge), I was told that I cannot renew it more than a day before the card is due to start "cause people try to use them early". I said surely it's the responsibility of the (mostly Northern) ticket inspectors/guards to ensure that the cards aren't misused, and issue a penalty fare if they are. I shouldn't be inconvenienced by having to give up my sundays to travel to Huddersfield and renew my Metrocard. But rules are rules, apparently... Except when they're not: Luckily, TPE staff don't seem quite as militant about this (and Worstgroup are probably glad of the potential opportunity to charge Penalty Fares) so renewing the card at Huddersfield is acceptable apparently. Never thought i'd find myself being glad of WorstGroup though. It does seem the railway industry in the UK is ignorant of the importance of good PR...

[John]

The Profi Season Card I mentioned above is charged on a monthly basis - you can get them a few days before and after a new month starts (about 5 days either way) and they are valid as soon as you get them. So I got mine on the 26th, and is was valid straight away - effectively meaning I got 3 days of "free" travel with it (the 26th, 27th and 28th).

Make public transport convenient and easy to use, and people will use it...

[teccuk]

Note: This post may contain sarcasm, and a subtle dig at the stupidity of british public transport.

Good job I read that. I was about to explode!

[JamieLei]

Can I just hijack this thread slightly?

You know the pre-10am minimum fare? What exactly is that?

Is it that if you travel before 10am, your fare has to be over £12 before you get the discount?

It's interesting how it's applied though, you have to be careful. I've seen ticket machines attempt to charge you extra for carrying your railcard, when the fare would otherwise be below £12.

I the fare caps at £12 though. So if the ticket price was £14, it would still only get reduced to £12.

[MjD]

Can I just hijack this thread slightly?

You know the pre-10am minimum fare? What exactly is that?

Is it that if you travel before 10am, your fare has to be over £12 before you get the discount?

Not sure if its still the same, but the minimum fare used to be different depending on whether you were buying a single or return. Although the info I currently have only states the £12. You are right in the fact in order to get a discount pre-10am then the fare needs to be above the minimum, otherwise its pointless using your railcard.

It's interesting how it's applied though, you have to be careful. I've seen ticket machines attempt to charge you extra for carrying your railcard, when the fare would otherwise be below £12.

I the fare caps at £12 though. So if the ticket price was £14, it would still only get reduced to £12.

If you attempt to buy a fare which is under the minimum fare, pre-10am, then if you want to use your railcard you need to pay the £12, so if the fare is less than the minimum fare don't use your railcard, simple.

MjD

[audigex]

I didn't know it would default to the £12, that's silly!

Fair enough that if it's above it only drops to £12. Although I don't really get why the morning rush hours are any worse than the afternoon ones, other than being easier to define.

Thanks for clearing that up, anyway I had no idea what it was about.

[Geo Ghost]

I like the fact one can get a Young Per... sorry, 16-25 Railcard online now, instead of having to print out a form and take it down to the station, along with a physical photo. (The latter is the annoying bit really.)

I did that and got told about the photo bit (completely forgot).
Then found out that their photo-booth did not work so had to tromp halfway across town to Tesco and back.

Do wish we could use railcards in peak-time. I suppose they have to have some restrictions but darn.. bit annoying when I have to get the train right before 10am.
Though it's sometimes quite funny some days standing looking at the station clock to pass 9:59.59 so I can go to the ticket machine

[atomicdanny]

Can I just hijack this thread slightly?

You know the pre-10am minimum fare? What exactly is that?

Is it that if you travel before 10am, your fare has to be over £12 before you get the discount?

You can also get discounts on trains that arrive in london after 10am (so if you catch a train at 8am that gets to london at 10:02, using a railcard it will be an off peak fare with discount!), or on some services that have advance fares before that time I've noticed (i think it might be as long as it arrives after 10am)

[JamieLei]

Actually all Advance fares are free from the £12 rule I think