Unable to use Railcard due to Northern Strike

[Puffing Devil]

One of the main uses of my Family railcard is to take my son to the football in Manchester. All the latest strike dates have hit the Saturdays and 4 home games to end October where I would have taken the train, missing out on savings of £29, which would have notionally covered my card cost for the year.

Instead, we've had to take the car and endure a grotty journey in and pay for parking.

The strike is diminishing the value of my railcard, and I'm guessing others too, especially Disable and Young People. Any ideas for a remedy, or are we all just stuffed. Will the new "regular traveller" compensation cover this?

 

[Starmill]

What sort of remedy are you after? If you didn't buy a ticket, you haven't got a contract. You bought the railcard I guess is what you are saying? At £30 a year I'm not sure what sort of compensation you would be after for this. You want your £30 back? Writing to complain on that basis is always an option. I'm not sure how much success it would have here.

The new compensation scheme for frequent customers seems to be just that - for customers who have bought tickets. Details are not all announced yet but I don't really think railcards are related to it.

 

[Puffing Devil]

What sort of remedy are you after? If you didn't buy a ticket, you haven't got a contract. You bought the railcard I guess is what you are saying? At £30 a year I'm not sure what sort of compensation you would be after for this. You want your £30 back? Writing to complain on that basis is always an option. I'm not sure how much success it would have here.

The new compensation scheme for frequent customers seems to be just that - for customers who have bought tickets. Details are not all announced yet but I don't really think railcards are related to it.

I feel like I've been denied the opportunity to use my card and make savings as promised, I know there's no contract but I'm left with a product that I'm not able to use as planned. In the ideal world I'd be looking for the railcard to be extended so I could use what I paid for, or a pro-rata refund for when I wasn't able to use it.

I appreciate this is difficult and most likely not going to be resolved, as the use cases for railcards will differ. I'm left a little "miffed".

 

[Clip]

I feel like I've been denied the opportunity to use my card and make savings as promised, I know there's no contract but I'm left with a product that I'm not able to use as planned.

But you can still use it at other times but its a tough situation for sure.

In the ideal world I'd be looking for the railcard to be extended so I could use what I paid for, or a pro-rata refund for when I wasn't able to use it.

Im not even sure that its Northern that you would approach with this as its an RDG product for use on all TOCs so maybe give them the same email as you will when you contact Northern and see what they say

 

[Starmill]

I think the reason you are miffed is because you expected a service to be provided and it wasn't. Many consider that service a public service, and there is evidence to support that idea given how much of your tax money goes on keeping it running, quite apart from any fares paid.

The service, of course, has not been provided. Perhaps your way forward here is to set out in a letter to one of your Councillors or your MP the above, expressing your concern that the reality has not met your expectations. I think this is the best you can do. A pro-rata refund would probably be less than £5 anyway although you may wish to pursue that from a principled point of view.

If I were in your position I would highlight the impact of my extra use of my car, in particular the extra traffic congestion, air pollution and carbon emissions caused by the strike.