Personally, I think that NO railcard discounts should be allowed on ANY First Class tickets.
The trip may be compulsory, but making it in First Class is optional.
I'm inclined to agree. Certainly with our current offerings of Railcards, anyone (including the OP) can travel First Class whenever they wish on exactly the same tariffs as anyone else.
No 'discrimination' and no need to buy a Railcard.
But the offer is still there for those who qualify and who choose to pay the extra price (for the Railcard) and who just want to make the journey.
Give a discount for frequent travelers who may have no choice but use the railway.
That's a rather different issue, which does seem to be attractive, but I have doubts. eg. A Local Authority, a Travel Agent or any large-ish company buys all its tickets 'on the discounted account'.
Or, if the Railcards are somehow tied to an individual, then can we equate an appropriate discount for someone who commutes 3 miles twice a day (12 journeys/week = 36miles) to someone who takes less than 4 journeys some weeks but averaging 1000-2000 miles a week?
. . . . . the railcards reward more frequent travellers. Lowering the saving percentage to maintain the cost of the card does the opposite - it'd be a benefit for those who travel less and a loss for those of us who'd still have to pay £26 but then only save 25%.
Exactly!
what is the point of having a railcard for everybody? Why not just have lower fares?
Look. If you're going to insist on carrying on talking sense like this, then why don't you just get yourself over to ATOC and tell them how to manage a useless bunch of Railway Operators?
Someone has to!
100 quid, then the same 30somthing price for people who would hold a 16-25/Oap/f+f railcard?
What?
How can that sort of thinking (whatever the price) make economic sense to most travellers or most TOCs?
Some people commute regular very short and very cheap journeys. And some make very long and
very expensive journeys. Where does a fixed price Card help?
Most TOCs provide carriage for short distance travellers (and luggage and prams and bikes) and also for long distance travellers (and luggage and prams and bikes) and they all have to provide a lot of staff, pay a lot for their stock, pay a lot for their station access, pay a lot for their track access. So where do discounts for passengers really engage with eonomies of cost?
And where do OAPs come into it? I know some (and can think of many more) highly regarded professionals, creatives and dedicated socialites who have Senior Railcards and are not OAPs. But perhaps that's the same category-error as referring to holders of 16-25 Railcards (all of them) as some stereotyped undesirable person? We wouldn't make that mistake on here, would we?