Two Together Railcard returns 3 March 2014

[itsjustmyjob]

I've followed this thread with great interest. To me the new railcard is an opportunity lost.

I can take a second person in my car, I don't have to tell anyone who is travelling with me, and the cost to travel per person is reduced.

The person travelling with me by rail isn't always the same person. Opportunity to sway me to take the train with them based on cost per person is lost.

A much simpler and cheaper option would have been to amend the 'Friends and Family' rail card to put pictures of two people on it, insist on one of the two adults using it to be one of those people and drop the necessity to travel with a child.

 

[transmanche]

A much simpler and cheaper option would have been to amend the 'Friends and Family' rail card to put pictures of two people on it, insist on one of the two adults using it to be one of those people and drop the necessity to travel with a child.

Even simpler: make the Network Railcard a National Railcard...

 

[mad_rich]

The other person travelling needs to named (and has their photo) on the railcard!

Yep. I was working on the principle that this would be a single-use shenanigan. Stranger & I split the cost of a railcard (£15 each) and then chuck it away after the journey.

Usefulness would be limited. Even for a £75 ticket, you're only saving a tenner each (£50 + £15 with a railcard) for all the hassle.

Still, if I had any coding knowhow, I would be tempted to set up a matchmaking website!

 

[itsjustmyjob]

Even simpler: make the Network Railcard a National Railcard...

Correct!

 

[trainosaurus]

I think everyone would like to see a nation-wide railcard for everybody regardless of age but that's unlikely to happen realistically.

I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth - since I turned 27 I've often taken a coach rather than the train because I simply can't justify the cost. However my girlfriend and I are both from Herefordshire and we both live in London. With one of these railcards we'd see a saving after just one journey back to Herefordshire together, and suddenly going by train is a lot more affordable.

 

[RJ]

I'm doing my weekly ticket office stint today - the ticket stock has finally arrived

 

[CallySleeper]

Using promo code 'LEAFLET3' at twotogether-railcard.co.UK/leaflet will get you £3 off.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I'm doing my weekly ticket office stint today - the ticket stock has finally arrived

But have you got any posters and leaflets to go with it? None have been spotted round my way as yet, so I hope ATOC stick a PDF application form up when the website (re)launches!

 

[RJ]

The posters and leaflets were delivered a few weeks ago, but we are upholding the embargo until the official launch. The fare for the railcard still shows at £999 in the ticket issuing software.

 

[cjohnson]

Trial members are being emailed a code for £6 off. The email also notes that the code 'FRIENDS' will give £3 discount.

 

[philjo]

Even simpler: make the Network Railcard a National Railcard...

At the very least the Gold Card should become a National Railcard (BR used to have a national annual season ticket holders' railcard - not sure when that ceased to exist). Annual season ticket holders don't only work in the South East so commuters to other major cities would have a greater incentive to buy an annual season.
Also days when I am travelling in other parts of the country are generally days I am not using the route of my season ticket.

I travel with other people a few times a year but it is rarely the same person travelling with me each time (& quite often it is my Dad who has a senior railcard anyway) so a 2 together railcard is effectively useless for me if it requires the same named person to travel with me each time. About 90% of my non-work journeys I tavel on my own - about 50% of which I can use my gold card discount.

 

[yorksrob]

At the very least the Gold Card should become a National Railcard (BR used to have a national annual season ticket holders' railcard - not sure when that ceased to exist) .

Now that would be a good idea (so long as it included PTE products). Gives the railway the chance of increasing uage amongst its core users without necessarily opening the flood gates to everyone and creating overcrowding (which seems to be one of the arguments against a national railcard )

 

[transmanche]

(BR used to have a national annual season ticket holders' railcard - not sure when that ceased to exist).

I think the NSE/LT Gold Card was a 'replacement' for the Annual Season Ticket Holders Railcard - I certainly remember having an ASTHR for one year around 1986 or 1987.

 

[cjp]

Older couples - who travel together - now need only buy the one railcard instead of two senior railcards.
A useful saving perhaps?

 

[island]

Well, yes if they never propose to travel separately I guess.

 

[34D]

Trial members are being emailed a code for £6 off. The email also notes that the code 'FRIENDS' will give £3 discount.

Can you share the code for £6 off, please?

 

[David Goddard]

There has been some media coverage over the last few days, mainly positive promoting the benefits of the new card. Naturally there are the comments about discriminating against single travellers, but I suppose that was expected.

Great to see from the articles that the railcard will offer discounts on First Class as well as Standard, and also on Advances, which is a great move, and a significant bonus over other cards which are valid in Standard only.

A great shame about the 09:30 threshold - for me the day is half gone by that time. If it was the same as the other railcards (ie minimum fare before 10:00 as per 16-25 or not valid wholly within Network Card area as per Senior) then that would be more attractive.

Nonetheless we will still go out and purchase one next time we travel by train together.

 

[mildertduck]

I'd prefer it to be valid when a named person and one other travel together. That surely would be more useful, and not as hard to implement?! (Although I suppose it would mean people paring up at KGX more frequent...)

 

[IanD]

I'd prefer it to be valid when a named person and one other travel together. That surely would be more useful, and not as hard to implement?! (Although I suppose it would mean people paring up at KGX more frequent...)

I thought they'd stamped all that out with the regeneration of the area

 

[furryfeet]

I'd prefer it to be valid when a named person and one other travel together. That surely would be more useful, and not as hard to implement?!

Agreed.

For me, if this were the rule, then this card would be more attractive, since I could travel with different relations, depending upon the trip involved. As it stands it is very marginal as to whether I can recoup the cards cost, based on the trips that I would take purely with my wife.

Perhaps someone from ATOC could come on to this forum and explain why the ticket is so restrictive - why not be a bit bolder and more imaginative and see what revenue / increase in journeys that would be generated with more flexibility from the passengers points of view.

 

[jon0844]

I am sure many people can recover the cost of the card after one or two trips, so it's not really a problem.

Of course I'd sooner have a national railcard, but that would also be more expensive (or so I'd expect) and maybe less enticing for a lot of people.

 

[Butts]

People who travel alone have been left "out in the cold" however I can understand this to a degree.

I would be prepared to pay double the amount or even £100 per year as I would soon recoup the cost on my 1st Class excursions. :cry:

 

[yorksrob]

People who travel alone have been left "out in the cold" however I can understand this to a degree.

I would be prepared to pay double the amount or even £100 per year as I would soon recoup the cost on my 1st Class excursions. :cry:

Funnily enough, a friend of mine who is a "normal" was also disappointed to be left out in the cold with this. He has friends and family in the South whom he tends to visit at relatively short notice. He is also a car driver. He is well disposed towards the train, yet often finds the fares available off-putting enough to make him choose the car. He would certainly use the train more often if a railcard were available to him.

 

[transmanche]

Funnily enough, a friend of mine who is a "normal" was also disappointed to be left out in the cold with this. He has friends and family in the South whom he tends to visit at relatively short notice. He is also a car driver. He is well disposed towards the train, yet often finds the fares available off-putting enough to make him choose the car. He would certainly use the train more often if a railcard were available to him.

And such a railcard might actually increase overall revenue for TOCs.

There are some journeys I currently only make using advance fares, where I would be more likely to pay the walk-up fare... if there was a national railcard available to me. And by not having to book so far in advance, I'd probably make those journeys more often too.

 

[Cruithne3753]

As a single person it looks like I'll have to part subsidise parasitic scum from now on. :mad:

 

[HowardGWR]

As a single person it looks like I'll have to part subsidise parasitic scum from now on. :mad:

Yes see my last post on the 'competition' thread I started. This is all about social exclusion. if you cannot drive for some reason you are condemned to use public transport. Not so the drive-able.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

This is some sort of humour, isn't it? :

This is all about social exclusion.

It is not. It is a commercial pricing policy which will be of use to some citizens and visitors, and not to others. No-one is excluded from travel or indeed to any other service, by the offer of this Railcard. We can guess that the £30 cost will restrict the number of people who take up the offer, and I hope that the cost of service is not equated with 'social exclusion'; we are all unable to enjoy the goods, services and life choices which lie beyond our means, whether that is a cup of tea or a yacht on the Mediterranean - that is not social exclusion.

if you cannot drive for some reason you are condemned to use public transport.

No. No one is condemned to use public transport, though many, I'm sad to say, have been finding that the public transport of their choice has been cut back or removed, and is now a less available option for them.

Why do some people choose to see a change in their environment as a personal attack or as an attempt to exclude them? From what social function does the introduction of this £30 Railcard exclude a person?

 

[snail]

As a single person it looks like I'll have to part subsidise parasitic scum from now on. :mad:

I'm subsidising your travel through my taxes. Should that be allowed?

 

[bnm]

As a single person it looks like I'll have to part subsidise parasitic scum from now on. :mad:

You are already part subsidising those with Disabled, 16-25, Family & Friends, Senior, Armed Forces, etc, Railcards. Are they all parasitic scum as well? :roll:

Or, on the flip side, all those with Railcards are using trains because they can now afford to. Increasing revenue and helping to keep full fare prices in check. In effect part subsidising all those single person parasitic scum out there. :-x

 

[spasmj]

The terms and conditions seem a little vague in terms of specifying whether both people must be travelling on their own Two-Together discounted ticket.

For example:

Person 1 and person 2 share a two-together railcard.
Person 1 has a season from X to Y. Person 2 buys a Two-together discounted ticket from X to Y. Both travel together at all times. Is this valid?

or a more complicated example:

Person 1 and person 2 share a two-together railcard.
Person 1 has a season from X to Y. Person 2 buys a Two-together discounted ticket from A - B which is valid for the journey X to Y. Person 2 starts short at X and finishes short at Y. Both travel together at all times.

As I read it, the terms and conditions allow this. I wouldn't be surprised if the booking engines only allow the discount to be applied when two adults are selected though.