New railcard launching

[whole diary]

[grahame]

https://www.16-17saver.co.uk/benefits

50% off rail fares for you!
 
If you’re aged 16 or 17, you can now enjoy 50% off standard Anytime, Off-Peak, Advance and Season tickets, helping you save money on trips into town, days out to the coast, travel to college or weekend festivals – as many times as you like.
 
A 16-17 Saver is just £30 and is valid for one year or until your 18th birthday, whichever comes first.
 
Download your 16-17 Saver to your phone with the Railcard app or keep your 16-17 Saver in your wallet to get half price tickets across the National Rail network (excluding travel on ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper services). 

The 16-17 Saver will be on sale from 20 August 2019.

[grahame]

Trying to come up with a systematic list of railcards and similar ... note that restrictions vary

* Travelling alone
0 - 4      free travel when accompanied (and too young to travel alone!)
5 - 15      travel at 50% normal fare - no railcard needed
16 - 17      travel at 50% normal fare with 16-17 railcard (on sale from 20th August 2019)
16 - 25      travel at 66% normal fare with 15-25 railcard
26 - 30      travel at 66% normal fare with 16-30 railcard
Any Age      travel at 66% normal fare NETWORK RAILCARD AREA ONLY with a Network railcard
60 - up    travel at 66% normal fare with a senior railcard

* Other catergories (not only aged base - other qualifying factors)
Disable Persons Railcard
Priv card
HM Forces Railcard
Jobcentre Plus Railcard
Devon and Cornwall residents card - DEVON AND CORNWALL TRAVEL ONLY
Overseas visitors - Britrail Pass

* For groups
2 together railcard
Family and Friends railcard

[Richard Fairhurst]

Cotswold Line Railcard in our neck of the woods too.

I note that after terminating the word "Saver" with extreme prejudice in an attempt to simplify fares, RDG^‡(resolve) has now introduced it as a confusing synonym for "Railcard"...

[Trowres]

From the 16-17saver website:

From 2 September 2019, a 16-17 Saver gets you 50% off most rail fares every day of the year with no time restrictions and no minimum fare.

The 16-17 Saver is valid for one year or until your 18th birthday, whichever comes first.
 If you buy a discounted Season ticket before the expiry of your 16-17 Saver, you can continue to use this Season ticket for up to 4 months after expiry.
...
Your 16-17 Saver WON^▸ (Weekly Operating Notice )’T apply to:

• Tickets for travel on ScotRail services
• Tickets for travel on Caledonian Sleeper services

If you live in Scotland, check out the Young Scot card for discounts on rail fares.

So looking at the Young Scot card:

If you are 16, 17 or 18 years old, your Young Scot NEC^» (National Exhibition Centre - about) allows you to buy rail tickets for travel within Scotland at discounted prices.

You can get:
•One third off most single or return rail fares.
•50 % off all weekly or monthly tickets.
•One third off most advance purchases.

The Young Scot train discount is valid on Scotrail, LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about), Virgin Train, Cross Country and First Transpenine services where the entirety of the journey is within Scotland.

There is a minimum spend if you want to travel before 10am on a weekday. Anytime and Anytime Day Single and Returns, Off-Peak, Off-Peak Day and Super Off-Peak Single and Return fares are all discounted with a £12.00 minimum fare.

Recommendations for a 17-year old travelling from Dumfries to Carlisle? 

[PhilWakely]

Trying to come up with a systematic list of railcards and similar ... note that restrictions vary

* For groups
2 together railcard
Family and Friends railcard

Not forgetting Groupsave - an automatic discount without the need for a railcard.

[47714]

Might be a daft question but why do we need another railcard for the 16-17 year olds when they already have the young persons (16-25) railcard?

[grahame]

Might be a daft question but why do we need another railcard for the 16-17 year olds when they already have the young persons (16-25) railcard?

50% discount rather than 34% discount - helps ease their move from children's fares to adult fares, helps them learn that life is full of complicate decisions as to which one to buy, and helps the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) provide a positive announcement into their press release flow on a day the media's picking up on next January's fare rises.

[Bmblbzzz]

Also helps them sound up to date by saying you can download it to your phone. Though if I were to get one for my son, I'd get him the card version (this distinction might, by the way, be a clue as to why they've started saying "saver" to replace "railcard"?) because phones don't tend to last too long with him. But he's not quite old enough yet, so...

...this leads me on to a question, which is probably easily answered elsewhere but it's more pleasant to ask you lot now I'm here. Does the 50% discount for children up to 15 end on their 15th birthday or (the day before) their 16th? I presume it's the latter but... ?

[didcotdean]

Bit similar in a way to the Zip Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card systems in London - in effect it pushes the child fare up to 18 but for two years you need proof of entitlement, providing a kind of buffer to ticket staff etc of being able to work out someone's age and entitlement to child fares more easily. Although looking it that way the cost is rather high.

[mjray]

Another option for 16-17 year olds, yet still nothing for single frequent travellers aged 30-60 unless in the blessed south-east? That's the glaring gap and it seems odd that we still don't have an equivalent of DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about)'s BahnCard or NS's Voordeel.

[grahame]

Another option for 16-17 year olds, yet still nothing for single frequent travellers aged 30-60 unless in the blessed south-east? That's the glaring gap and it seems odd that we still don't have an equivalent of DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about)'s BahnCard or NS's Voordeel.

Totally agree - although I've now been along to graduate onto an old foigies card, I will and do keep commenting about the grown iniquity of the current system.  Everyone is a special case ... except 30 to 59 year old solo travellers outside "London".