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Railcard app version suddenly not supported
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RailUK Forums
Extremely unlikely - (a) surely no train company would be daft enough to do this and (b) if it did a court ought to throw it out as a rare clear cut abuse of process.
Agreed, there's no need for an app. Should simply be added to Apple/Google Wallet but I expect that would require work and engaging with the respective companies.
EllieP
New Member
I too have had a message to say my app needs updating- go to the App Store and that says it’s up to date go to the app and there’s only my expired Senior railcard one there!!
gordonthemoron
Established Member
I had a problem with Virgin when they didn’t put the ticket into the app, I had to buy another ticket. Ticket showed up the following day, when it wasn’t valid. I got a refund
123344556
New Member
Hello I've had the same problem except my railcard no longer displays it just says oops there was something wrong try again later. Hope they fix the problem soon
Railcards have put up a message on Twitter about this now.
"We are currently experiencing a technical issue which means some customers are not able to get new codes to download their Digital Railcard to the Railcard App. We're working on a fix asap and are sorry for any inconvenience. If you're travelling today or tomorrow, please DM us."
"We are currently experiencing a technical issue which means some customers are not able to get new codes to download their Digital Railcard to the Railcard App. We're working on a fix asap and are sorry for any inconvenience. If you're travelling today or tomorrow, please DM us."
Although that seems be a separate (though possibly connected technically) problem
Vespa
Established Member
This is why I avoid digital railcards, old school physical railcard doesnt need an update, battery or internet connection.
There should be an industry wide brief highlighting this problrm to prevent penalty fares.
There should be an industry wide brief highlighting this problrm to prevent penalty fares.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Or just fix it. A single authorisation failure shouldn't take it out, it should take two or even three over a period of at least 2 weeks.
(Why 2 weeks? It's a typical length of foreign holiday, and many people don't turn their phone on with data for a period of that length if abroad).
Until I saw this thread I didn't even know one could have one's railcard in electronic form. I'll stick to the physical one and the same for my tickets, either collect real card ones from a machine or, if getting them as PDFs with QR codes, print them on paper. Of course you can lose a paper or card ticket ...
... just like you can lose a mobile phone, or much more likely, have it stolen. Hardly any thief would steal a paper or card ticket. A few more events like this with the subsequent claims for compensation should put down any daft ideas of mandating tickets on electronic devices.
pokemonsuper9
Established Member
I am one of those that use digital tickets, with the sole exception of tickets where that's not avaliable (E.g. rovers/rangers/cross-london tickets).
It's so much easier to be able to buy my ticket on the way to the station without having to worry about ticket machines working.
Adam Williams
Established Member
Well, unless you're 26-30
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I do (e-tickets are my preference), but not these. I'm not using something that can easily become invalid due to an IT issue and has done a number of times as reported on here. There are ways this issue could be fixed, though, and if it *was* fixed I might indeed switch.
Does anyone know, out of interest (not that I'll be using that, but educationally), does Trainline's Railcard issuing system work the same way and suffer the same problems, or are theirs actually reliable?
Adam Williams
Established Member
It doesn't work in the same way
We’re not 26-30 
and as has been said above we prefer the app because generally at least it’s more convenient. I really don’t buy the argument that people should eschew digital and do everything the traditional way (and the inference that it’s all our fault if it subsequently buggers up). If a digital platform is offered (and indeed positively encouraged) it should be reliable, accessible and properly maintained & supported. I’ll get off my soapbox now….
and as has been said above we prefer the app because generally at least it’s more convenient. I really don’t buy the argument that people should eschew digital and do everything the traditional way (and the inference that it’s all our fault if it subsequently buggers up). If a digital platform is offered (and indeed positively encouraged) it should be reliable, accessible and properly maintained & supported. I’ll get off my soapbox now….Where did I say that they were?
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Thanks, that is interesting to know. Has anyone here ever had an issue with the Trainline ones?
Nottingham59
Established Member
Is it not mandatory to carry the digital-only 26-30 Railcard on journeys where a discounted ticket is held?
mike57
Established Member
I have a digital rail card (old codgers) loaded on a Samsung S22 Ultra, running Android v13, and railcard app working fine, just checked it. App version is 1.4.1. I bought mine onlie.
I do find digital easier, phone is always with me, and trust me the fall out from SWMBO would be far worse than any criminal penalty if I went out without my phone. If I am out for more than an hour or two I always pop a mini power bank in my pocket, its not much bigger than 2 AA batteries, and a short charging lead.
I generally buy etickets as well, its just easier.
As for prosecutions resulting from a failure of the Railcard App, one would argue that they wouldn't progress to court if you refused to accept the penalty fare if there was clearly a widespread problem.
I agree with the move to digital, but I do think the byelaws and related arrangements need an upgrade to align with the 'digital' age.
I do find digital easier, phone is always with me, and trust me the fall out from SWMBO would be far worse than any criminal penalty if I went out without my phone. If I am out for more than an hour or two I always pop a mini power bank in my pocket, its not much bigger than 2 AA batteries, and a short charging lead.
I generally buy etickets as well, its just easier.
As for prosecutions resulting from a failure of the Railcard App, one would argue that they wouldn't progress to court if you refused to accept the penalty fare if there was clearly a widespread problem.
I agree with the move to digital, but I do think the byelaws and related arrangements need an upgrade to align with the 'digital' age.
Dot1911
New Member
I got the same. I rang the phone line and after about 30 minutes got through to someone who said there was a problem with the backend tech and wait 24 to 48 hours before trying again. Got a code today but it doesn't work. I am travelling by train on Saturday. Was advised to pay full fare and claim back. I also emailed but they say 10 days to reply. Why doesn't the phone message you get when first call the say they know there is a problem. Will not get digital one when renewal due next year. As seniors we don't need this stress!
jp4712
Member
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Looking on Twitter, it seems that a lot of people are having difficulty which is not, apparently, exclusive to Android phones. We have a Two Together and use iPhones. On renewing it we don't get the 'blank purple square' but on inputting the download code we get 'oops something went wrong'. Helpful! Fortunately this is an advance renewal, our current railcard is valid until next month, but it's frustrating and clearly there's some back office issue going on.
Just a random thought: we, like many, pay for our railcard with Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Earlier this week, the Clubcard site fell over due to overload as Tesco had announced that they were reducing benefits from this week. Everyone flocked to get vouchers, including us, to get the better benefits before the deadline and the Clubcard website was a nightmare such that Tesco had to extend the deadline. I wonder if many, many people got railcard vouchers and then tried to redeem them resulting in severe strain on Railcard's servers etc?
Just a random thought: we, like many, pay for our railcard with Tesco Clubcard vouchers. Earlier this week, the Clubcard site fell over due to overload as Tesco had announced that they were reducing benefits from this week. Everyone flocked to get vouchers, including us, to get the better benefits before the deadline and the Clubcard website was a nightmare such that Tesco had to extend the deadline. I wonder if many, many people got railcard vouchers and then tried to redeem them resulting in severe strain on Railcard's servers etc?
It's more than likely an expired certificate on a server that the process needs to connect to. Without a valid in-date certificate the requesting process doesn't know if it's talking to the correct server, so it rejects the connection.
Ironic when you can't use an expired railcard!
Ironic when you can't use an expired railcard!
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It'll be something like that, but the app should be designed to retry over ideally a couple of weeks (that being a typical holiday length when people may have data off), not to automatically "break" the Railcard if the server isn't reachable on one occasion.
As things stand it's little better than just having to show a Web page. Indeed in many ways it's worse.
karl.mabert
New Member
Yes, this happened to me. I emailed [email protected] with a description of the issue.
I also tried un-installing and re-installing the app, today - which worked fine, ... BUT when I tried to register my download code, get the "Oops! Something went wrong" message.
The Apple iOS version runs OK and I can see my card on an iPhone. But I use an Android tablet as a backup.
Someone mentioned about having Google accreditation: I don't know the intricacies of this, but National Rail should be alert to these management/compatibility issues.
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