LondonJohn
Member
I am surprised nobody has suggested this before.. well I am not surprised because it denies TOC of revenue.
Most, if not all Railcards are registered so someone somewhere should have a record of it. Maybe we need a central database of railcards and in that case, a TOC official could speak to this department verify the card has been issued and is valid subject to say proof of identity being produced.
By following this process a TOC can validate that the person is entitled to that discount.
In cases like this, the person is charged either a £5 or £10 admin fee for the "convenience" of using the validation service for say the first occassion and on the second and subsequent occassions, the person is charged the excess PLUS the admin fee. Then you have some sort of deterrent for passengers who repeatedly forget, you don't overly penalise a family to the extent of £400 odd pounds for a genuine mistake and the scheme is self funding.
OR If this isn't workable, then a refund of the unusable ticket less an admin fee should in the very least be forthcoming after someone has been charged the full fare. Making someone pay twice, is quite unfair and just because the NRCOC says thats what happens doesn't make it right.
I am guessing this is just wishful thinking because the TOC want to sting passengers for £400 odd pounds rather than say £50 plus an admin fee or god forbid a TOC refunding a passenger, denying stakeholders of extra profit.
Maybe there should be an opt in scheme too at the time a railcard is purchased for say £1 this would cover the cost of the card being held on the database. If the person doesnt pay for this at the time of purchase they can't take advantage of the "validation" scheme.
Most, if not all Railcards are registered so someone somewhere should have a record of it. Maybe we need a central database of railcards and in that case, a TOC official could speak to this department verify the card has been issued and is valid subject to say proof of identity being produced.
By following this process a TOC can validate that the person is entitled to that discount.
In cases like this, the person is charged either a £5 or £10 admin fee for the "convenience" of using the validation service for say the first occassion and on the second and subsequent occassions, the person is charged the excess PLUS the admin fee. Then you have some sort of deterrent for passengers who repeatedly forget, you don't overly penalise a family to the extent of £400 odd pounds for a genuine mistake and the scheme is self funding.
OR If this isn't workable, then a refund of the unusable ticket less an admin fee should in the very least be forthcoming after someone has been charged the full fare. Making someone pay twice, is quite unfair and just because the NRCOC says thats what happens doesn't make it right.
I am guessing this is just wishful thinking because the TOC want to sting passengers for £400 odd pounds rather than say £50 plus an admin fee or god forbid a TOC refunding a passenger, denying stakeholders of extra profit.
Maybe there should be an opt in scheme too at the time a railcard is purchased for say £1 this would cover the cost of the card being held on the database. If the person doesnt pay for this at the time of purchase they can't take advantage of the "validation" scheme.