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Using Two-Together Railcard on London Underground

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MKB

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Recently, a helpful member of LU staff showed me their internal magazine that stated that a Two-Together Railcard cannot be added to an Oyster card, but can be used to purchase a Travelcard at 34% off.

However, when, on Saturday, I went to a machine to buy a One-Day Travelcard with Railcard, the Two-Together card is not offered as an option. Clearly, LU have not updated their self-service ticketing systems to cope with the new card.

I nearly always arrive into London via Euston, and the ticket window queues there are usually lengthy, so I'd really like to be able to get my Travelcard from the machines.

My first question is, can I just select any railcard - does the railcard type actually print on the ticket or get encoded in the magnetic strip. (Needless to say, there are the two of us travelling, so I would be buying two tickets.)

Secondly, if there is a way to get this Travelcard at a machine, can I use the Oyster only machine (that has shorter queues) and have it added to my Oyster card (and thus charged to my auto-top-up credit card)?
 
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transportphoto

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Try one of the national rail ticket machines in the Main Station, rather than in the Underground station. These should offer you the discount.

Another option is to ask the train manager / guard on your inbound train into Euston, they are usually very obliging to sell you one!

TP
 

MikeWh

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Secondly, if there is a way to get this Travelcard at a machine, can I use the Oyster only machine (that has shorter queues) and have it added to my Oyster card (and thus charged to my auto-top-up credit card)?

No. You can only store period travelcards on an Oyster card. Day travel is covered by the capping. Oyster cards are individual so it is not possible to add a discount that relies on more than one person travelling together, hence why the family and friends railcard also cannot be added.
 

MKB

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So I have to go to a machine that takes credit cards or cash?

Thanks for the tip that I can buy the Travelcard from the main station ticket machines. Most helpful.
 

Brucey

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At Euston, there is a "London Travel Information Centre" located on the main concourse, opposite the departure screens. They can sell the full range of London Underground tickets and often have a shorter queue than the ticket office itself.

Also, any ticket window in the mainline station can sell a discounted travelcard (in addition to the TVMs).
 

MKB

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At Euston, there is a "London Travel Information Centre" located on the main concourse, opposite the departure screens. They can sell the full range of London Underground tickets and often have a shorter queue than the ticket office itself.

Unfortunately that had a huge queue as well last weekend.
 

island

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The ticket machines also do not offer a Network Railcard discount at weekends.

I believe (but am not 100% certain) that irrespective of what discount you select, a Travelcard issued by a POM will just print as "Reduced Trvlcrd" and not specify the type of Railcard.
 

yorkie

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If you don't have time to purchase at your origin, you could ask the guard on board your train into Euston, failing that any ticket machine at Euston. The ones in the Virgin Trains Travel Centre (or whatever it's called) are less likely to have queues than the ticket machines at the Underground station (which are notorious for having long queues). Euston Square would be better than Euston but this is not an LU product and can be bought almost anywhere.
 

Daniel

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I'm not in the ticket office at the moment so I haven't been briefed about the TwoTogether.

If you say it can be used on a day travel card, then you can buy it from LUL POM's. Just select any of the other railcards. There is no distinction between them on our tickets, they just print saying 'concession'.
 

MKB

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An update:

Arrived in Euston last Saturday morning and the queues at the LUL machines were back half-way to the escalators, the queues for the counters in the Virgin ticket hall had about 30 people waiting and very few desks open, so I tried to buy two Z1-6 Travelcards from the Virgin machines.

However, the clowns that program these things haven't bothered to include the Two-Together railcard even though -- see first post -- I saw printed instructions from LUL that they were a valid national railcard that should get 34% off Z1-6 Travelcards.

I followed the suggestion of just selecting another railcard type -- Senior -- and found that it wouldn't let you select a quantity of 2 and a railcard type at the same time -- unbelievably, you had to make two purchases.

To my horror, the tickets were not printed "Reduced Trvlcrd" but with "SNR" (iirc). Time constraints meant that I didn't have 30 minutes plus queuing time to sort this out so we couldn't see any option but to buy the second ticket similarly and hope for the best while travelling, stressful as that was. In the event, we weren't challenged anywhere about having incorrect tickets, albeit at the correct price.

I want to avoid this stress next weekend. I'm trying to follow the instructions given in another thread about buying on Southern's website. But, would you believe it, they are failing to apply a discount when you select the Two-Together railcard.

Will the train manager on the Virgin train into Euston be able to sell me two Z1-6 Travelcards with the Two-Together railcard discount?
 

causton

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An update:

To my horror, the tickets were not printed "Reduced Trvlcrd" but with "SNR" (iirc).
Will the train manager on the Virgin train into Euston be able to sell me two Z1-6 Travelcards with the Two-Together railcard discount?


Yes; to make it clear:

You can buy it from the guard on the train.
You can buy it from a ticket office (but not most machines)
You can buy it from a *TFL* ticket machine as *these* do not print the railcard used (picture). Once again, the *TFL* ticket machines at tube stations, the ones that issue tickets that aren't orange :)


However, you cannot buy it from other TVMs and most websites as... basically I'm guessing programmers are lazy and the railcard isn't widespread enough for them to bother including it!
 

island

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I believe the Manual says 2GETH discounts may not be applied to inboundary Travelcards.
 

Mike395

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I believe the Manual says 2GETH discounts may not be applied to inboundary Travelcards.

You would (unfortunately for the OP) be correct:

Discounts on London Area Day Travelcards (both Off-Peak and Anytime versions) are only available when bought as part of a through ticket to London from outside London Zones 1 – 9 and are subject to separate minimum fares
 

island

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Just means you have to buy from somewhere outside the zones instead, such as Epsom. That costs £9.70 instead of £8.50 pre-discount, so £6.40 after the discount.

(Is there a cheaper outboundary Travelcard? I'm sure it must have come up before with a Groupsave question attached.)
 

MKB

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I believe the Manual says 2GETH discounts may not be applied to inboundary Travelcards.

I don't understand this. I quote from my OP: "Recently, a helpful member of LU staff showed me their internal magazine that stated that a Two-Together Railcard cannot be added to an Oyster card, but can be used to purchase a Travelcard at 34% off."

I saw this (upside down from across the counter) with my own eyes. It was a feature explaining to staff how to handle the new railcard and the staff member read out to me what it said. Are you saying that the policy has been changed, or that this internal LU publication was wrong?

Island: Cheers for the tip on using Epsom - that does indeed enable me to buy in advance for £6.40 (less 6% cashback) and means I can pick up from my departure station. Many thanks!
 
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island

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Don't ask me about inconsistencies between The Manual (National Rail document) and LU guides!
 

RJ

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Just means you have to buy from somewhere outside the zones instead, such as Epsom. That costs £9.70 instead of £8.50 pre-discount, so £6.40 after the discount.

(Is there a cheaper outboundary Travelcard? I'm sure it must have come up before with a Groupsave question attached.)

The cheapest day Outboundary Travelcard is Epsom Southern Only and the cheapest period would be Denham.

 

Daniel

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I followed the suggestion of just selecting another railcard type -- Senior -- and found that it wouldn't let you select a quantity of 2 and a railcard type at the same time -- unbelievably, you had to make two purchases.

To my horror, the tickets were not printed "Reduced Trvlcrd" but with "SNR" (iirc).


I did specifically state that "Concession" is printed when using an LUL ticket machine.



If you say it can be used on a day travel card, then you can buy it from LUL POM's. Just select any of the other railcards. There is no distinction between them on our tickets, they just print saying 'concession'.
 

RJ

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Agreed, I think around 99.9% of people who use the Underground ticket machines would be stumped if you asked them what a POM was. Impressive that you know the system but not very helpful for the passenger asking for advice without explaining what it is in layman's terms. I should not have to keep repeating this point over and over again on a forum that is supposed to be here to help normal passengers :p
 

MKB

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I did specifically state that "Concession" is printed when using an LUL ticket machine.

No worries - it was the posting by island at 21:33 on 1/3 which didn't mention LUL that I was following rather than yours.

Incidentally, what does "POM" stand for?
 

island

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No worries - it was the posting by island at 21:33 on 1/3 which didn't mention LUL that I was following rather than yours.

Incidentally, what does "POM" stand for?

Passenger Operated Machine. The National Rail ones are called TVMs, standing for Ticket Vending Machine.
 

Daniel

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Well this forum isn't necessarily here to help normal passengers. I'm here to discuss the railway not to specifically answer questions from passengers, I do that at work.

I do appreciate MKB saying it wasn't my post that caused him confusion but I'd sooner not post here than convert my language for as long as I'm just a normal user on here. I'll explain stuff if asked of course, but I write as I'd talk.
 

34D

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Well this forum isn't necessarily here to help normal passengers. I'm here to discuss the railway not to specifically answer questions from passengers, I do that at work.

I'd say at least 25% of the questions on here are from 'normal' people rather than enthusiasts though.

I used to work on LUL and I thought that a POM (pom) was something held by an 18 year old girl wearing a bikini, drumming up support for an american football team!
 

Daniel

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I'd say at least 25% of the questions on here are from 'normal' people rather than enthusiasts though.

I do understand and agree with that, but surely my point can be seen that I did not join this forum specifically to help passengers, I joined as an enthusiast to discuss things.
 

SS4

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I used to work on LUL and I thought that a POM (pom) was something held by an 18 year old girl wearing a bikini, drumming up support for an american football team!

I wouldn't mind seeing that on LUL ;)<D
 

MikeWh

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A further update:

I went ahead and bought two Epsom - London Z1-Z6 travelcards on Southern's website at £6.40 each for a total of £12.80.

However, according to this page: http://www.southernrailway.com/offers/10-off-peak/terms-and-conditions/ I should have got an additional 10% off.

Once again, someone has failed to code the discount for Two Together railcards.

I'm not sure.
Please Note: All Off-Peak Day Travelcards are subject to an £8.50 minimum fare.
Does this mean £8.50 before railcard discount and does this then preclude offering a further 10% off?
 
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