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Network Railcard additional travellers

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benk1342

Member
Joined
13 Jul 2011
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367
Location
Welwyn Garden City
Facts:
(1) I have a Network Railcard.
(2) I am travelling on a journey for which Network Railcard discounts apply.
(3) I have a (monthly, not Gold Card) season ticket for the journey, and so am not actually using a Network Railcard discounted ticket.
(4) My wife is travelling with me.
(5) My wife does not have her own Network Railcard.

Rules:
(1)
p to three adults can travel with you and they will also get 1/3 off their rail fare.

(2)
Additional accompanying passengers for whom discounted tickets are purchased must travel with the Railcard holder throughout the journey.

Question:
Can my wife use a Network Railcard discounted ticket while travelling with me even though I am not using a Network Railcard discounted ticket for this particular journey?
 
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LondonJohn

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Joined
17 Jul 2011
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285
Location
London
My (unqualified) interpretation of the rules is no as you will not be travelling on a Network Card reduced ticket so therefore no other adults can accompany you with Network Railcard discounts and that for her to use qualify for the discount she would need to buy a ticket.

In that case if your wife pays full price and you travel free effectively you have between you got travel for 50% of the normal fare which is cheaper than 66% of the fare.
 

MarkyMarkD

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Joined
1 Dec 2009
Messages
504
Location
Cliftonville, Margate, Kent
More relevantly to me, I presume there is no way to take advantage of a colleague's Network Card discount unless I travel both ways of a journey with him?

Very frequently, recently, I have made the outbound journey with this colleague, but returned later on my own.

As the return ticket and single ticket cost virtually the same, getting a discount on a single outbound and not on the single inbound would cost far more than the undiscounted return, even if the £13 minimum didn't come into play (which it would).

I should probably just buy a Network Railcard of my own but I can't persuade myself that the economics are worthwhile - because most of my Network Card area journeys are M-F before 10, and those which are M-F after 10 don't cost much more than £13 anyway.
 

benk1342

Member
Joined
13 Jul 2011
Messages
367
Location
Welwyn Garden City
For what it's worth, the empirical result was that the ticket agent (FCC) said that it was fine and happily sold me the ticket for my wife. He seemed surprised that I was even worried about it.

Individual results may vary obviously.
 

blakey1152

Member
Joined
5 Sep 2011
Messages
450
I've been trying to find something in the terms and conditions but I am 110% certain that at one point very recently they stated something along the lines
that there was no need for the cardholder to purchase a ticket for themselves if the entire journey being made was covered with a valid season ticket/Travelcard.

However, I believe it stated that for that journey the restrictions that applied to the railcard journey (i.e travel after 10am weekdays) also applied to the railcard holder with the valid season ticket/Travelcard.

If I find a reference to it I will post it up.
I just wish that they'd bring back the £3 1st class supplement that used to be available on the old network card back in the very early 90's!

Blakey
 

David Goddard

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Joined
8 Aug 2011
Messages
1,502
Location
Reading
The Network Card remains a good product, but the 10:00 weekday time restriction is one of the biggest bugbears for me. Yes I totally accept that the aim of the card is to encourage off peak travel, which is fine, but not being allowed to travel until 10:00 results in half of the day being gone before you have got anywhere.
Most commuter flows have taken place by 09:00 so I do not think that it would be unreasonable for the restriction to come back until that time, or even simpler, be aligned with off peak tickets. For example, from Fleet to London Waterloo we have:
First Off Peak service 09:10, arrives 10:05
First Network Card discountable service 10:10 arrives 11:05
(or for an extra £2.60 I could use the 09:54, calling Farnborough 10:00 so valid from there)

We went to Weymouth for the day last summer, and the first discountable service was at 10:19, and so we did not reach the seaside until 13:00. "Off Peak" on this flow starts with the 08:38, getting us there at 11:13. The NSE discount is nearly £15, so quite substantial and makes a trip worth while, but the time restriction makes you have to cut your day short or go on a Saturday, both of which defeat the idea of having a day off work to go to the coast when it will be quiter!
 
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