Adding a Railcard to an oyster card

[ABB125]

Good evening.

Could anyone advise me as to the best way to add my 16-25 Railcard discount to my oyster card? According to the TfL website, to do this I should:
Ask a member of staff to add the discount to my oyster card;
Show them my Railcard.

However, generally the only members of TfL staff I see are gateline assistants of platform dispatched, both of whom I assume have better/more important things to, and don't have the means to do so anyway. TberefoTh, whom do I speak to? Are there any particular stations where this is easier to do? Do you have any other advice for me?

I will be in London tomorrow, arriving/departing from Paddington.

Many thanks for any replies.

 

[ainsworth74]

Most members of staff should be able to assist and I've asked gateline staff before and they've either done it themselves or pointed me at a colleague who was better placed to assist. At the larger terminals (such as Paddington) you'll often find staff floating around helping people with machines in which case just approach them.

 

[Hadders]

A gateline assistant should be able to do it. Kings Cross St Pancras staff have done it for me for the each of the last 3 years.

You might have to persist a little, earlier this year the gateline assistant told me he couldn't do it as it had to be done online. I persisted and told him it was in supervisor functions on the POM (LU term for TVM). He went and checked and hey presto it was done in seconds.

Paddington staff should be able to do it. You could also ask the staff at the TfL Visitor Centre at Paddington.

 

[swt_passenger]

I had my last one done at Blackfriars. Just asked one of the staff hovering by the ticket machines, it was middle of the morning and very quiet at the machines. The staff member was completely familiar with the procedure, took very little time.

Depending where you are travelling from, I’d suggest if anyone else is doing this to use one of the bigger LU stations, that is off the tourist routes, and not necessarily a major mainline interchange.

 

[Be3G]

I got my trial 26–30 railcard loaded at quiet Loughton station with relative ease. I say ‘relative’ because it was so quiet, in fact, that there were no visible members of TfL staff at all! I had to call across the gate line to the cleaner on the other side to ask him to find a member of staff for me.

 

[crosscity]

Recently I had my Senior Railcard added to my new Oyster Card without problem by a very courteous and efficient employee at Euston Square. It was about 1030 on a Tuesday morning and he was quite busy. It took about 2 minutes to sort out. Previously I went to the Underground Information Centre on Euston Station concourse, but on the latest occasion they told me they could no longer do it and said I just had to go to any Underground Station.

 

[Be3G]

Odd, TfL visitor centres are definitely supposed to be able to do this. As are Overground and TfL Rail stations, for what it's worth. It's even something that newsagents can apparently do, but I've never heard of anyone managing it at their local corner shop, nor did I have any success when I tried it some years ago!

 

[sharpley]

A gateline assistant should be able to do it. Kings Cross St Pancras staff have done it for me for the each of the last 3 years.

You might have to persist a little, earlier this year the gateline assistant told me he couldn't do it as it had to be done online. I persisted and told him it was in supervisor functions on the POM (LU term for TVM). He went and checked and hey presto it was done in seconds.

Paddington staff should be able to do it. You could also ask the staff at the TfL Visitor Centre at Paddington.

Underground staff have a function called CSID (which is linked to their staff Oyster card and allows them to access a new screen when their Oyster card is presented to a POM), and TSID, which is a swipe card that can access the POM and the cash inside. Its the CSID that can add discounts to an Oyster. Confusingly not all staff have either CSID or TSID so it can be pot luck if you find one.

Even more confusing is that a POM (Passenger Operated Machine), which did cover 3 different machines (MFM - the big ticket machine that takes all types of payments, AFM - card and exact coins only, QTM - card only), has now got a new machine included called a TVM, currently installed at LO stations but will be rolled out to Crossrail and a number of LU stations. As far as I know a member of staff with CSID can access these screens on any of the above machines.

 

[ABB125]

Thanks for all your replies. I will endeavour to add my Railcard discount today.

 

[philjo]

I had my gold card added to my oyster card at the Thameslink ticket office in St Pancras without any problems. GN ticket office at Finsbury Park has also done it in the past.

 

[island]

Odd, TfL visitor centres are definitely supposed to be able to do this. As are Overground and TfL Rail stations, for what it's worth. It's even something that newsagents can apparently do, but I've never heard of anyone managing it at their local corner shop, nor did I have any success when I tried it some years ago!

It is in the manual for the terminal, but the chance of a random corner shop staff member a) having read that and b) being prepared to faff about with the machine not serving other customers for two or three minutes for a transaction they don’t earn anything off is low.

 

[NeroWolfe]

I got mine added today at Farringdon (Tube side). The CSA (Sam) was very polite and immediately offered to help even though it was peak time. All sorted in a couple minutes!

 

[K.o.R]

I'm sure the first time I ever asked to do this the person in the ticket office just loaded my (absolutely nowhere near the Oyster area) season ticket onto the card instead of the railcard discount, as I noticed when comparing the fares between my and my parents' cards.

 

[amateur]

When adding railcard to our oyster,
What further information do they need. Do you need to fill in a form, and register your railcard or do you just show them your railcard, and they check the validity date, and hey presto?!

 

[NeroWolfe]

I just showed them the Railcard - I typed in my post code and a password and bingo!

 

[island]

When adding railcard to our oyster,
What further information do they need. Do you need to fill in a form, and register your railcard or do you just show them your railcard, and they check the validity date, and hey presto?!

There are no forms any more but you will be asked for your postcode and a password.

 

[sheff1]

I just showed them the Railcard - I typed in my post code and a password and bingo!

There are no forms any more but you will be asked for your postcode and a password.

I have never been asked for a postcode or password. What it the thinking behind this new requirement ?

 

[swt_passenger]

I have never been asked for a postcode or password. What it the thinking behind this new requirement ?

Is that only if the card isn’t already registered?

 

[BigBadWolf]

I just tried to get mine added but it stopped the Oyster working!

They had to take the railcard discount off of the Oyster to get it working again!

 

[Aictos]

Can they add a Network Railcard to Oyster?

 

[K.o.R]

Can they add a Network Railcard to Oyster?

The option in the staff screen is called "Network Railcard", so one would assume so. It definitely works with Senior and Annual Gold Card Railcards (the latter of which I thought was just a Network Railcard, but the Gold Card area is more of the network now).

 

[CyrusWuff]

Can they add a Network Railcard to Oyster?

Unfortunately not, due to the £13 minimum fare Monday to Friday. Similarly, you can't add a Family & Friends or Two Together Railcard due to the requirement to have multiple passengers for them to be valid.

The relevant options are NR Railcard (as the fares/caps are the same regardless of which Railcard you hold) and Disabled Railcard (as there's no peak restriction for the latter).