| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by Bob_Blakey at 08:24, 16th August 2026 |     |
Close. I would prefer a railcard to become a loyalty card.....
Hmmm, I never considered that and agree it could work. Obviously LNER already do this with their PERKS scheme, I don't know if any other TOCs, apart from GWR, offer something similar.
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by grahame at 07:57, 16th August 2026 | |
Since it seemingly won't be very long before there is a Railcard to cover every sector of society why not speed up and/or simplify the process by scrapping all of them and implement an across-the-board fare reduction?
Discuss (from a safe distance obviously).
Discuss (from a safe distance obviously).
Close. I would prefer a railcard to become a loyalty card. The devil, though, would be in the detail. At present, different railcards have differing terms and conditions. Can you use them in the peak? Or before 09:30? Is there a minimum fare payable? Do you have to take a child with you? Can they be applied to paper tickets?
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by Bob_Blakey at 07:48, 16th August 2026 | |
Since it seemingly won't be very long before there is a Railcard to cover every sector of society why not speed up and/or simplify the process by scrapping all of them and implement an across-the-board fare reduction?
Discuss (from a safe distance obviously).
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by grahame at 05:56, 16th August 2026 | |
Hm. It is, but I'm a bit sceptical about claims like this:
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
Zoe Billingham, the director of the IPPR North think tank, has also called for ministers to think about ways to roll out more discounted fares in northern England.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
Is that an edge case or a common scenario?
I would ... suggest ... that Didcot to Swindon is something of an extreme case - perhaps not an extreme edge case, but certainly on the 95th or higher percentile. Any time, any route (including HS1) Tonbridge to London is £90.50, NOT HS1 is £40.70. Swindon to Salisbury is an interesting case - the most flexible ticket ("Not via London") costs £174.20 anytime return and that used to be the ticket you required on the 06:15 direct train from Swindon. However, GWR saw the logic in changing the "via Bath Spa" fare into a "via Trowbridge" fare and at current rates that's £50.70 - still above "northern rates" but a huge improvement, and thank you to GWR for helping to bring in this change.
Hebden Bridge to Manchester is a pretty standard sort of rate, I suggest, away from the South East / Home Counties. Try £11.90 Forres to Inverness, or Plymouth to Totnes at £12.60 / anytime day returns. Brighton to Bognor Regis is £22.20 ...
Where you find astonishing inequalities is in the differenetial between anytime and restricted time fares, and between tickets from where you start to where you end versus multiple tickets bought in sections via intermediate stations. I would suggest that there's a tendency for the anytime fares ("peak fares") to be proportionatly fare higher than "off peak" on London routes.
Basically, the whole system has grown into an illogical morass based on local and regional issues - both in keeping fares low in the first place ( for the very people, perhaps, who are now requesting a railcard for the North ) and in increasing fares for a premium service such as Didcot to Swindon.
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by TaplowGreen at 12:02, 15th August 2026 | |
Hm. It is, but I'm a bit sceptical about claims like this:
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
Zoe Billingham, the director of the IPPR North think tank, has also called for ministers to think about ways to roll out more discounted fares in northern England.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
Is that an edge case or a common scenario?
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by grahame at 11:30, 15th August 2026 | |
Cue member grahame on Melksham fares....... 
Can't really answer today - offline at the moment in Tilshead ... (oops ... I seem to be here!)
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by GBM at 11:24, 15th August 2026 | |
Hm. It is, but I'm a bit sceptical about claims like this:
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
Cue member grahame on Melksham fares.......
| Re: Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by Richard Fairhurst at 10:30, 15th August 2026 | |
Hm. It is, but I'm a bit sceptical about claims like this:
Zoe Billingham, the director of the IPPR North think tank, has also called for ministers to think about ways to roll out more discounted fares in northern England.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
“It’s not right that there’s a Network Railcard that offers discounted off-peak travel for the South East of England only,” she said.
“The North has suffered the double blow of unreliable train services on Victorian infrastructure whilst paying full fares.
An anytime day return from Didcot Parkway to Swindon, about 25 miles, is £65.20. An anytime day return from Hebden Bridge to Manchester, about 25 miles, is £15.60. Neither qualify for Network Card discounts. Not all "full fares" are the same.
| Burnham urged to extend railcard discounts to over 30s Posted by TaplowGreen at 09:58, 15th August 2026 | |
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/burnham-rail-fares-commuters-adam-dance-b3033468.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawTtCNxwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMUFiZkpXSVlaNVVUcndWVE9zcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEec9CyIOW_F6MCBceAC8Njym5EiWNec4B2edzDkXF2BvCp9w93EzoQlVYdcus_aem_f6UImbDWggcLSLKJjSNC8Q
Interesting idea.
