translink student discount card - worth it?

benfilan

hello!

Was looking at a student travelcard as I used the train and bus a lot through the week.

During a normal week I buy 5x day bus tickets (£3.50 each) and 3x day returns on the train (£4.00 each). On the surface the travelcard looks like a good deal, the card is £7 and purports to get students a 33% discount on fares, but i'm not totally clear if that applies to the tickets I would use.

Does anyone have practical experience using one of these cards?

thanks

jclegs

I had one up until September last year and it was great. I used it on the trains only to buy weekly tickets and it paid for itself in a week!

benfilan

jclegs wrote: »

I had one up until September last year and it was great. I used it on the trains only to buy weekly tickets and it paid for itself in a week!

i only use the train three times a week. does it reduce the cost of a day return?

D.A.

See here:

http://www.translink.co.uk/Services/Other-Translink-Services/Students1/Student-Rail-Fares/

It looks like a day return is the cost of 2 student singles (i.e. 33% less than the normal day return fare).

It wouldn't be like Translink to make something easy to understand. :-)

JulieElizabeth

Are your 5x £3.50 day tickets Metro tickets? You don't get any discount on Metro services.

If you are using Metro that often, you should use a weekly, or better still, monthly travel card. 5x£3.50= £17.50 whereas a weekly ticket (SEVEN days) is only £14.50.

ALWAYS TRY TO PAY TRANSLINK AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE

D.A.

Or you could use a Smartlink card and top it up as need be:

https://www.translink.co.uk/Buy-Online/Metro-Multi-Journey/

Phoolgrrrl

I use the student card, I get a weekly train ticket and save £7 a week.No prob using it on trains for day returns but there is no student return as such, it's just double the price of a student ticket. It depends what time of day you get the train, as after 9:30 it's a thrid off returns anyway.
Haven't used on the bus. I do use a smartlink card and they are way better value that buying metro tickets and you don't have to worry about having change. Only down side is you have to go and top it up in person.

jamesbrownontheroad

I have a Translink student card and only use it on NIR (although have occasionally used it on Ulsterbus Goldline). The only two cautions are that unlike to (GB only) National Rail 16-25 Railcard, the Translink student card is only available for the standard academic year, from Sept/October time for 12 months (so if you were to buy one now, it would still cost you £7 and it would expire in about nine months time) and that you can only get the discount on single NIR fares, not day returns.

I know for certain that Holywood / Botanic is £4 day return, so assuming your route has the same fares, a student card would let you buy two student singles at £1.70, so you'd save 60p per day. So it'll pay for itself in 12 day trips on the train.

benfilan

jamesbrownontheroad wrote: »

I have a Translink student card and only use it on NIR (although have occasionally used it on Ulsterbus Goldline). The only two cautions are that unlike to (GB only) National Rail 16-25 Railcard, the Translink student card is only available for the standard academic year, from Sept/October time for 12 months (so if you were to buy one now, it would still cost you £7 and it would expire in about nine months time) and that you can only get the discount on single NIR fares, not day returns.

I know for certain that Holywood / Botanic is £4 day return, so assuming your route has the same fares, a student card would let you buy two student singles at £1.70, so you'd save 60p per day. So it'll pay for itself in 12 day trips on the train.

Thanks! That's a pretty ridiculous condition, good old translink! I don't think I'll bother with it, I wouldn't be saving anything on the train fares (I travel at off peak times) and the travel card doesn't work with metro tickets! Bit useless. Really glad I checked here first!

benfilan

JulieElizabeth wrote: »

ALWAYS TRY TO PAY TRANSLINK AS LITTLE MONEY AS POSSIBLE

An excellent policy!


The 3x3.50 are metro day tickets.Think I'll investigate a weekly ticket, would work out a tiny bit cheaper. Thanks for letting me know!

benfilan

D.A. wrote: »

See here:

http://www.translink.co.uk/Services/Other-Translink-Services/Students1/Student-Rail-Fares/

It looks like a day return is the cost of 2 student singles (i.e. 33% less than the normal day return fare).

It wouldn't be like Translink to make something easy to understand. :-)

AND train fares are already 33% off after 0930 so the travel card is irrelevant after that time.Wish they made it a bit more straightforward. The only way I can see it being useful is if you lived outside belfast and traveled into the city during peak times regularly.