Rail card - can I buy it on a train?

hethmar

On Thursday I have to take a long rail journey and I wondered if I can buy a senior travel card and ticket on the train itself. Our station is unmanned so I cant get one from a ticket office first and there isnt time to do it on line - anyone know please?

charliegirl_3

Hi Hethmar, unfortunately you cannot buy Railcards on the train, they don't have the facility on board. They can only be bought from a staffed station booking office, online or over the phone. Is there no way of getting to another station that is manned as if it's a long journey the saving of a third-off should cover the cost of the Railcard itself x

hethmar

The cost of getting to a main line station would negate the savings charlie. Im not sure Id use the card again in the year - just had a hellish 5 hour journey on a train which should have taken 1 hr 50 mins :eek:

charliegirl_3

aw sorry to hear that.
If you kept your ticket or receipt it's worth applying for compensation for the delay, take a photocpoy of it and send the original with a covering letter to the relevant train operating company, you will probably be given Rail Travel Vouchers for the cost of the journey.

you have to weigh up the cost of the railcard - 26 quid against getting a third off the journey. I work for a large train company and a lot of folk buy a railcard just for getting to their one annual holiday.

Savvy_Sue

Worth mentioning that you can ask for a compensation form at the station when you get off at the end of a hellish journey.

Sometimes they hand them out on the train, if it's been particularly bad ...

Quentin

hethmar wrote: »

On Thursday I have to take a long rail journey and I wondered if I can buy a senior travel card and ticket on the train itself. Our station is unmanned so I cant get one from a ticket office first and there isnt time to do it on line - anyone know please?

See if your council do them. Many do, and sell them at a discount to residents.

alanq

At the time my local council did this you had to get an application form, send it to the council, a couple of weeks later they posted a warrant to you....which you then took to a station to get the Railcard.

Quentin

Ours sell them to you over the counter (£18) in all their one stop shops/council offices etc.

hethmar

Many thanks people. Actually, they did hand out compensation forms after my journey last week and Ive sent it off with my ticket. It was a hellish journey - at one point people were actually fainting from the heat in the stationary packed train with no air con. At least they then came round giving out bottles of water We all got off (by that time, 3 trains of people) at one station and were told to stand outside for buses. An hour later and we were told to go back into the station as a train was now running. So 3 train loads of people on one train which then moved about 100 yards and stopped for another hour

Council apparently do them at £19.50 but you have to send off your application and they take up to 3 days to send it back.

I dont think Im going to be able to get the pass in time - its actually for a hospital visit. So Ill just have to bite the bullet. Many thanks for everyones kind input