Not to mention there is an element of 'computer knows best' about such machines which means that certain tickets can't be bought when required and valid.
Disabled Railcards differs from most is that discounted fares have to be offered on the train rather than a full undiscounted fare, if due to their disability they are able to buy a ticket the conventional way.
Why isn't it peak restricted in the Southeast? A disabled professional is still a high-yield passenger for the railway. (Unless we consider it to be a subsidy)
I presume it's because the disabled Railcard is designed to help people who have no choice but to take public transport, which may be more expensive and/or less convenient than driving. So unlike other railcards, it is designed for commuting. Just my thoughts
I can't see how the different railcard types are 'confusing'. Most people know:
The also need to remember that its not just for off peak trains, but after 9.30am for a Two Together railcard, 10am for a Network railcard, that there is a minimum fee for a Network railcard.
But they don't. They only need to know the restrictions for the railcard they hold.
I own both. For a recent trip, I probably wanted to travel with my wife, but it would have been good to have the flexibility to travel separately.
Between my wife an I we have simultaneously held 3 cards, her a Network card, me a Senior card and we have shared a 2 Together card. No problem in understanding the difference, within the NSE area we use our own cards if we are likely to separate, and it's not exactly difficult to remember the start times and any other significant differences. Those who can't be bothered to remember the conditions are probably at risk of getting the use of any card wrong.
Not all disabled railcard holders are professional people. Many will be earning very low wages and be unable to drive.
Post COVID recovery aside, how would this work on routes where commuter travel is using line capacity?
I specifically said post COVID, because as far as we know there may not be sufficent capacity on some routes to accommodate additional demand if the regualr commuter traffic returns to near pre COVID levels.
OK, I read it as a generally applied discount, not that certain flows might be excepted.
Where possible of course, but there are some routes where capacity is used to its limit and increasing that would involve levels of infrastructure investment that would take forever and a day to get funding for. Typically we could be talking about crossrail 2 or the Castlefields Corridor four tracking schemes to meet significant growth on the scale being experienced pre COVID.
It would seem appropriate that any such advertising is done at an educational establishment, not more generally. How many people are going to take up a qualifying course, just to get a 16-25 railcard?
As 16-25 year olds don't earn the full minimum wage I think it's important that all under 25s have discounted fares, not just those who are students. Also good to get folks using rail while they're young!
Although, in my opinion, it would be better to just have the same minimum wage for people of all ages (perhaps excluding school students, I've not 100% made up my mind on that).
I agree with that, though if it suddenly gets more expensive when they lose their eligibility for the railcard, will they all continue to the same extent?
Yea I fully support the same minimum wage for everyone, and would prefer to just make all tickets a good bit cheaper and do away with railcards. I think many would still continue with rail if they've been using it for the past 10 years and maybe even decided not to own a car because they're able to commute by train. Hopefully. I hope 16-25 encourages people to commute by train rather than car
