As Railcards are a commercial product, allowing their use at peak times woild only be justified if there were a net profit for the operators overall.
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Should Railcard T&Cs be harmonised?
- Thread starter Kite159
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As Railcards are a commercial product, allowing their use at peak times woild only be justified if there were a net profit for the operators overall.
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swt_passenger
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Yes, and I don’t believe any of the railcards are aimed primarily at the daily travel to work market. That’s what season tickets are supposed to be for.
Are they all fully commercial products or are some of them mandated?
krus_aragon
Established Member
A cousin of mine in Canada is registered blind, and is constantly asked for here "driving license" as a form of identification. (It's the standard document used for ID in North America.) She can be stood there with white cane and guide dog, saying "no, you don't want me to have a driving license, but here's my CNIB-issued ID card" , and some clerks will still insist on wanting a driving license from her.
ForTheLoveOf
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Section 28 of the Railways Act 1993 obliges the Franchising Director (in practice, the DfT nowadays) to include a term in every franchise agreement that the franchisee will participate in every approved discount scheme, and charge fares not in excess of the levels promulgated by such scheme(s). The discount scheme is as good as spelled out as meaning a Disabled, "young person's" and a "senior" railcard.
That means they remain part of the national fares scheme - along with regulated fares etc - not sure about the DSB but the others were certainly introduced on a commercial basis.
I can just remember railcards coming in. The intention was to offer cheaper fares at off peak times to help fill the trains and bring in additional revenue for the cash strapped BR which had to have a lot of rolling stock to handle the peak flows. I know that times have changed, but I don't think anything has sufficiently altered to allow them to be used for commuting purposes. I'm afraid that if it did happen, the railway would lose money overall. Any extra traffic that would be attracted by the discounts would not make up for the revenue lost, and they would only exacerbate the problem of crowded trains in many areas at peak times.
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