Will discounted wheelchair tickets be available if ticket offices close?

[GrimsbyPacer]

Hello all, my Mum and I don't travel often, but when we do, we always buy a ticket at the ticket office in Grimsby Town station.
We do not have nor want a railcard as travel is infrequent, but she gets a discount for being a wheelchair user, and I get a discount for being her assistant.
These tickets are not available at the ticket vending machines or online, nor did the staff member walking around the entrance with a handheld ticket machine know how to issue them last time at Grimsby Town on the 23rd of June, but as usual the ticket was available at the office. The tickets always have "DISCOUNT AUTHORITY" written at the bottom.

My question is, if ticket offices are closed, as the news is warning, how will disabled passengers without railcards be able to get the correct ticket without being overcharged?
Many thanks.

(apologies for not being able to log onto my old account)

 

[skyhigh]

I suspect the honest answer is that the ticket office are using their discretion and selling you a ticket with the Railcard discount even though you don't have one.

That essentially means if you wanted to keep the discount you'd need to get a Railcard. I think it's unlikely you'd get the discount any many other ticket offices without the Railcard anyway.

 

[Adam Williams]

I suspect the honest answer is that the ticket office are using their discretion and selling you a ticket with the Railcard discount even though you don't have one

This is not the case, it's a separate discount. In the system, these are D34/D50/D75 which appear as CONCESS 34%, 50% and 75% respectively.

To my knowledge, online retailers are not allowed to sell tickets with these discounts. Frankly, this needn't be the case and with a bit of thought you could make these discounts available to third-party retailers. For example, you could ensure that when scanned, the Ticket Keeper app prompts the guard to check whether the passenger is in a wheelchair or not. You could also require the retailer to obtain proof of the passenger's assistive needs before being able to buy the ticket online.

In theory, these tickets should be able to be issued from a mobile ticket issuing system - so they're not necessarily reliant on a ticket office - but I suspect that passengers in this position may struggle to get the ticket issued without better staff training and awareness of this discount scheme.

 

[skyhigh]

This is not the case, it's a separate discount. In the system, these are D34/D50/D75 which appear as CONCESS 34%, 50% and 75% respectively.

To my knowledge, online retailers are not allowed to sell tickets with these discounts.

Thank you for the clarification.

 

[Haywain]

Hello all, my Mum and I don't travel often, but when we do, we always buy a ticket at the ticket office in Grimsby Town station.
We do not have nor want a railcard as travel is infrequent, but she gets a discount for being a wheelchair user, and I get a discount for being her assistant.
These tickets are not available at the ticket vending machines or online, nor did the staff member walking around the entrance with a handheld ticket machine know how to issue them last time at Grimsby Town on the 23rd of June, but as usual the ticket was available at the office. The tickets always have "DISCOUNT AUTHORITY" written at the bottom.

My question is, if ticket offices are closed, as the news is warning, how will disabled passengers without railcards be able to get the correct ticket without being overcharged?
Many thanks.

(apologies for not being able to log onto my old account)

You would do the same as you would if the ticket office was closed or the station is unstaffed, and buy the ticket on the train.

 

[gray1404]

If you could carry some of the previous tickets sharing the discount you were given this may assist in purchasing them if you have to do so on the train or at your destination as you will have them to show.

 

[Wallsendmag]

All of these mitigations are being looked at. I know of three different industry workflows plus TOCs are also looking at it.

 

[jamiearmley]

This is not the case, it's a separate discount. In the system, these are D34/D50/D75 which appear as CONCESS 34%, 50% and 75% respectively.

To my knowledge, online retailers are not allowed to sell tickets with these discounts. Frankly, this needn't be the case and with a bit of thought you could make these discounts available to third-party retailers. For example, you could ensure that when scanned, the Ticket Keeper app prompts the guard to check whether the passenger is in a wheelchair or not. You could also require the retailer to obtain proof of the passenger's assistive needs before being able to buy the ticket online.

In theory, these tickets should be able to be issued from a mobile ticket issuing system - so they're not necessarily reliant on a ticket office - but I suspect that passengers in this position may struggle to get the ticket issued without better staff training and awareness of this discount scheme.

Hi... As someone who retails tickets on train, I'm aware of the D50 and D34 codes and regularly use them : not least as there are some occasions when the D50 gives a better value ticket than the Disabled Railcard.

I wasn't aware of D75 however : what is it used for?

I have trawled through BRFares, NRE and the section on here, and can find nothing : could you post some detail on this if you have it?

I'd appreciate it very much! Thanks

 

[Adam Williams]

I wasn't aware of D75 however : what is it used for?

Wheelchair-using children should benefit from the 75%-off concession when you're issuing. This applies to all ticket types that you can usually apply the D[34, 50] concessionary discounts to.

All of these mitigations are being looked at. I know of three different industry workflows plus TOCs are also looking at it.

I'd love to learn more. Frankly it's quite difficult for TPRs to do things that benefit customers with assistive needs and who consider themselves to have a disability at the moment (I'm thinking integrating assistance requests, selling fares like the ones discussed in this thread, selling railcards for these customers - I don't think we're allowed to do any of these things which then means choice is taken away from these customers).

 

[[.n]]

Hello all, my Mum and I don't travel often, but when we do, we always buy a ticket at the ticket office in Grimsby Town station.
We do not have nor want a railcard as travel is infrequent, but she gets a discount for being a wheelchair user, and I get a discount for being her assistant.
These tickets are not available at the ticket vending machines or online, nor did the staff member walking around the entrance with a handheld ticket machine know how to issue them last time at Grimsby Town on the 23rd of June, but as usual the ticket was available at the office. The tickets always have "DISCOUNT AUTHORITY" written at the bottom.

My question is, if ticket offices are closed, as the news is warning, how will disabled passengers without railcards be able to get the correct ticket without being overcharged?
Many thanks.

(apologies for not being able to log onto my old account)

Everything I've used these, the onboard guard has sold the appropriate ticket

 

[Alex-B]

Can a TOC's telesales service issue these tickets today? Or is it in person sales only?

 

[rg177]

Can a TOC's telesales service issue these tickets today? Or is it in person sales only?

In theory. The system I used to use to sell tickets had the option to discount with those.

The issue was that nobody told us that's what they were for and that's how you'd issue a wheelchair user discount ticket.

In the event I don't think I was ever asked - as just about every customer I booked assistance and tickets for had a Railcard of some sort.

 

[RJ]

Hi... As someone who retails tickets on train, I'm aware of the D50 and D34 codes and regularly use them : not least as there are some occasions when the D50 gives a better value ticket than the Disabled Railcard.

I wasn't aware of D75 however : what is it used for?

I have trawled through BRFares, NRE and the section on here, and can find nothing : could you post some detail on this if you have it?

I'd appreciate it very much! Thanks

It’s detailed in the internal Knowledgebase which is there to help staff find information on these things.