You can buy a ticket for 9th September today and do that, of course. But you can't buy a ticket on the day. See post #147!I've just put in the NRE journey planner and VT webpage for EUS to MAN depart at 08:00 and return at 18:00 on 9 September. They both show that railcards still allow the off-peak tickets on contra-peak trains whereas without railcards, only anytime and advance tickets are available.
So the return fare from EUS to MAN, out on the 08:00 and RETURN on almost any train will still be £53.85 with a railcard, the same as now. That makes sense as the early morning down trains are hardly full except for a few business travellers in 1st, where the discount doesn't apply.
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They might be naive enough to think this, and I expect one or two will do, but more likely in my opinion is that most Railcard holders will cease travelling on the travel on the lightly loaded "peak" trains and wait until the aforementioned 1900 service, and get to 'enjoy' the advertised "extra room to stretch out"do they really think people on Senior railcards are going to spend £150 to make a journey?