Senior Railcard

[tractakid]

Need to buy my Grandma a senior railcard in the morning. She previously had one and is clearly old enough.

She doesn't have a passport, birth certificate, driving license or her old railcard on her, and we already have railcard discounted tickets that we need to travel on.

She does have her bus pass on her.

Will we have trouble buying the railcard?

 

[RJ]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that an elderly person's bus pass can be accepted for a Senior Railcard application. I can't remember where though. In any case, I expect common sense to be excised - presentation of such a bus pass, or a previous railcard and some identifying article should be enough really.

 

[dzug2]

Trouble is the bus pass (mine anyway) doesn't show age or the reason the holder has a concession, so it doesn't prove very much

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Trouble is the bus pass (mine anyway) doesn't show age or the reason the holder has a concession, so it doesn't prove very much

Doesn't a bus pass usually have a photograph? No guarantee that common sense would be applied, but the existence of a bus pass containing a photo of a person obviously at least 60 ought to suffice.

 

[AM9]

Trouble is the bus pass (mine anyway) doesn't show age or the reason the holder has a concession, so it doesn't prove very much

The ENCTS pass comes in two forms that are distinguished by the colour of the band on the right side of the pass:
blue for a senior pass and yellow for a disabled pass.
So it is fairly easy for anybody to determine that the holder (who is pictured on the pass) is above the eligible age for a Senior Railcard, by an increasing number of years, - but that's another discussion.
I can't understand why the pass wouldn't be accepted by all travel organisations as proof of minimum age, especially where they accept it or a non-picture Senior Railcard for price concessions.

 

[tractakid]

Thanks guys. Railcard was bought no questions asked thankfully as she was on the system.

I'm sure I've heard that there wasn't a database but I really couldn't care less right now, as we can use the first class advances and not pay a hefty excess or even worse buy new tickets!

 

[PermitToTravel]

There's a database of cards sold online; it's just station-sold cards where the records are either kept at the station or with the TOC