Railcards with journeys in Greater Manchester

[John @ home]

For journeys wholly within Greater Manchester there are often two fares, route ANY PERMITTED and route METROLINK. The latter is valid for cross-city transfer by tram. It seems that the route ANY PERMITTED fares attract Railcard discounts but the route METROLINK fares don't.

For some journeys only one of these routes are available, for others there are both. The logic isn't obvious, for example both are available between Stalybridge and Hadfield but from Stalybridge to the next station, Glossop there is a route METROLINK fare only.

It seems that where there is no ANY PERMITTED fare, no Railcard discounts at all are available between this pair of stations. This appears to me to be a breach of the adverts for the national Railcards:

What is a 16-25 Railcard? [1]

A 16-25 Railcard (formerly Young Persons Railcard) costs just £26 and it'll save you 1/3 on rail fares throughout Great Britain for a whole year.

What is a Family & Friends Railcard? [2]

A Family & Friends Railcard (formerly Family Railcard) costs just £26 and you save 1/3 off adult fares, and 60% off kid's fares on travel throughout Great Britain.

What is a Senior Railcard? [3]

With a Senior Railcard anyone 60 years or over can save 1/3 on Standard and First Class rail fares throughout Great Britain for 12 whole months.

Any thoughts?

John

[1] http://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/what-is-a-16-25-railcard
[2] http://www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk/what-is-a-familyandfriends-railcard
[3] http://www.senior-railcard.co.uk/what-is-a-senior-railcard

 

[yorkie]

Well spotted and I agree this is a breach of the conditions.

 

[1D53]

Are you sure this is not just a fault/glitch in Avantix Traveller? Would be very odd if it isn't included, as fares to Manchester Ctlz (Central Zone) allow Metrolink travel within the City Zone and does allow railcards.

 

[glynn80]

Are you sure this is not just a fault/glitch in Avantix Traveller? Would be very odd if it isn't included, as fares to Manchester Ctlz (Central Zone) allow Metrolink travel within the City Zone and does allow railcards.

I think that this is certainly the case.

Checking for example, Eccles to Guide Bridge (which again only has a RTE Metrolink fares), theTrainline gives a Railcard discounted Off Peak Day Return at £2.00 (the full fare is £3.00) or a Railcard discounted Anytime Day Return at £3.30 (the full fare being £5.00).

 

[1D53]

On a slight tangent if you need to use the Metrolink to get from Picc to Vic or vice versa and have a railcard its actually a fair bit cheaper to buy a railcard discount single from Salford Central to Manchester Ctlz than to buy a ticket for the Metrolink.

 

[scrapy]

Whilst I agree this is probably a glitch with the Advantix the quotes at the top of the page are actually incorrect. Official railcard publicity advertises discounts of MOST rail fares, for example a holder of a 16-25 railcard wouldn't get a discount off a £5 fare before 10am in May.

If you want to travel to Glossop simply buy a ticket to Hadfield and break your journey at Glossop since most trains stop there 1st.

 

[323235]

The More this issue arises the more I am beginning to think that "Route Metrolink" is just intended to work in the same way that Manchester CTLZ does and doesn't actually officially mean you have to use the tram as part of your journey.

Its just intended as a Free add on, partially to allow customers to travel from Picc to Vicc to get to places such as Ashton and Eccles.

As for Aventix, I think that is just a glitch

 

[Mojo]

The More this issue arises the more I am beginning to think that "Route Metrolink" is just intended to work in the same way that Manchester CTLZ does and doesn't actually officially mean you have to use the tram as part of your journey.

Yeah, we've discussed this before. Have a look at this thread which I think backs up what you're saying: http://www.railforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=23107&highlight=Metrolink