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Railcards on TFL Rail
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Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Get an Oyster card (rather than contactless) and have the Railcard applied to that?
Oyster card not valid west of West Drayton.
'Paper tickets' only if you want a railcard discount for the OP's journey.
If travelling one way it's cheaper to use contactless.
Taplow - London Paddington
SDS £12.00 before 10am (Minimum fare applies on railcard)
SDS £11.50 before 10am without the use of railcard
Contactless Peak 0630-0930 £11.30
SDS £7.60 after 10am with railcard
Contactless Off Peak after 0930 £6.20
Taplow - London Paddington
SDS £12.00 before 10am (Minimum fare applies on railcard)
SDS £11.50 before 10am without the use of railcard
Contactless Peak 0630-0930 £11.30
SDS £7.60 after 10am with railcard
Contactless Off Peak after 0930 £6.20
I imagine that that will be scant consolation for the OP would like to pay £4.10 for this journey at off-peak times given the 'paper' off-peak day return with a railcard is £8.30.
What time would you want to go to London and what time would you want to return?
JBuchananGB
Member
But surely the 'paper' ticket can be bought on an app as an e-ticket, and if the OP requires a return fare he can use the £8.30 fare when he travels off-peak both ways.
cactustwirly
Established Member
Trainline only offers collect at station
JBuchananGB
Member
Red Spotted Hanky will do it as an E-ticket. Another good reason not to use Trainline.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
Be careful if one site does it in eTicket format all should.
JBuchananGB
Member
Tell that to Trainline. I also tried Greater Anglia and Northern but they get their fulfilment from Trainline. GA offered pick up at station or load onto smartcard. Northern only offered pickup at station. If the OP does not want a paper ticket at the station, he could use RSH and get an E-ticket.
Surreytraveller
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Surely its not rocket science to add a railcard discount to an online Oyster account so that any contactless cards registered have the discount applied
As I understand it one of the main issues is how revenue can identify that a contactless card has got a discount attached to it so that they can ask for the railcard.
Surreytraveller
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That's a good point, but in the nearly twenty years I've had an Oystercard with my staff discount attached, not once have I been asked to show the entitlement to the discount
I've been asked on a couple of occasions in the year prior to covid. Once when changing at Kings Cross St Pancras, the other on the Piccadilly Line between Holborn and Leicester Square.
matt_world2004
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Are e tickets valid on tfl rail the barriers at Ealing Broadway are not set up for it if they are.
I recently saw that the all new Langley gatelines don't have optical code readers fitted. So I suspect the only stations that do are run by GWR.
Wallsendmag
Established Member
TfL Rail and London Overground have always been flagged as not to be enabled for eTickets when batch enablements have been performed.
Yes. There are plenty of journeys where e-tickets are available even though the journey might involve passing through a station or gateline not equipped with scanners.
cactustwirly
Established Member
I would have thought the Western end would have to be, because it shares flows with GWR who offer e tickets
Wallsendmag
Established Member
If only life were that simple
matt_world2004
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I imagine that would require GwR to pay for the gate lines at tfl rail stations to include barcode scanners. Something they probably weren't willing to do considering they would get minimal revenue from the flows at these stations.
So I have all of my contactless cards added to my account. I have been known to lend a card to a friend when we went out for a day. If I was entitled to a discount, should my friend be given it too?
Where would that leave you in terms of your bank T&Cs?
matt_world2004
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An RPI an't retain a contactless card as evidence of discount fraud. Or to prevent continued discount usage
Yeah this is the problem. Oyster is an owned TfL product; get into the realms of bank cards and that's a whole new logistical and possible legal issue.
Surreytraveller
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You're not supposed to lend out an Oystercard that has a Railcard discount added either.
But its no easy solution, unless there's the realtime ability for the system to know that any card has a Railcard discount applied to it
BluePenguin
On Moderation
Personally I would say so yes. Although legally and ethically speaking, they should probably not.
The trouble is that it would be morally wrong to allow your friend to pay more than you, knowing that you have a way to help them pay less, saving them money. Especially if they would qualify for the discount if they applied for it in their own right.
The only way to police this would be to only allow the discount to be used by the person whose name is on the bank card. As in more cases than not, a bank card should only be used by it’s owner. Anyone caught with someone else’s card may have more to worry about than using a discount if they “borrowed” it.
What about if you want to lend your Oyster card to someone who has their own railcard? Should be no different to them making use of a discounted national rail ticket.
I am highly against all of this business of tying rail products to an individual. Everything should be transferrable. If the money has been paid for a journey or journeys, who they are made by is completely irrelevant.
Doris should be allowed to use Jean’s Senior Railcard discounted tickets to visit her Grandson. If Jack has lost his ZIP Oyster card and his brother is off sick, he should be able to use his one to get to school whilst waiting for a replacement to arrive. TFL never make any allowances or exceptions for these scenarios.
I’m inclined to believe that there are many more people who buy non-discounted tickets and Oyster products who would qualify for a railcard, than those making use of a discount to which they are not entitled to. So it evens out.
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