Question regarding use of tickets bought with a senior railcard to exit ticket barriers

Sarahspangles

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

katejo

spenderdave said:

Happens with me with one particular set of barriers at Waterloo, the ones at the main entry/exit to the old International platforms, but not at any others in the station. Never been told the reason, there is often a line of people for the chap to let through and they just open the barrier. My railcard is probably visible in the open wallet in my other hand but it has never been inspected.

I don't have this issue at London stations within Oyster as I have the Oyster 60+ for that part of the journey. The problem has only arisen when using the extension ticket (boundary of zone 6 to my destination). 

katejo

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

Sarahspangles

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

My children have had 16-25 railcards through the student/graduate years and say that they’ve noticed their photo is now more frequently being checked against the card. I guess there’s a lot of sharing going on.

I think being checked at the barrier is new, but since there are fewer checks on board that’s their remaining option. We can walk on and off trains locally without going through any barriers unless we use specific larger stations. Even there the barriers are sometimes left open due to crowding. OH has often commented ‘we could have travelled without paying’

katejo

Sarahspangles said:

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

My children have had 16-25 railcards through the student/graduate years and say that they’ve noticed their photo is now more frequently being checked against the card. I guess there’s a lot of sharing going on.

I think being checked at the barrier is new, but since there are fewer checks on board that’s their remaining option. We can walk on and off trains locally without going through any barriers unless we use specific larger stations. Even there the barriers are sometimes left open due to crowding. OH has often commented ‘we could have travelled without paying’

The Senior railcard doesn't have a photocard. The Oyster 60+ does but I haven't had any checks on that yet.

Sarahspangles

katejo said:

The Senior railcard doesn't have a photocard. The Oyster 60+ does but I haven't had any checks on that yet.

That’s interesting - I wonder if they just accept a bit of pass-sharing for Senior Railcards. We’ve got a Two Together card and they certainly wanted pics for that.

MilesT6060842

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

Fundamentally this is not good customer experience for the majority of law abiding customers.  Revenue protection checks should be performed on trains, on most there is space and time.

SiliconChip

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

My children have had 16-25 railcards through the student/graduate years and say that they’ve noticed their photo is now more frequently being checked against the card. I guess there’s a lot of sharing going on.

I think being checked at the barrier is new, but since there are fewer checks on board that’s their remaining option. We can walk on and off trains locally without going through any barriers unless we use specific larger stations. Even there the barriers are sometimes left open due to crowding. OH has often commented ‘we could have travelled without paying’

The Senior railcard doesn't have a photocard...

It certainly does if you use the app for it. I don't know about the non-app version as I've never had one.

katejo

SiliconChip said:

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

katejo said:

Sarahspangles said:

It’s standard practice to protect revenue by checking tickets and passes. They sometime waive the process and wave people through when there are queues but you can’t count on it - if you could there’d be more evasion.

Yes I understand the principle. I have seen checks on trains and at stations but I have never had it happen in that way before so was wondering how common it was to stop people automatically just because they have discount railcards. 

My children have had 16-25 railcards through the student/graduate years and say that they’ve noticed their photo is now more frequently being checked against the card. I guess there’s a lot of sharing going on.

I think being checked at the barrier is new, but since there are fewer checks on board that’s their remaining option. We can walk on and off trains locally without going through any barriers unless we use specific larger stations. Even there the barriers are sometimes left open due to crowding. OH has often commented ‘we could have travelled without paying’

The Senior railcard doesn't have a photocard...

It certainly does if you use the app for it. I don't know about the non-app version as I've never had one.

I didn't choose the app version because of the risk of having a flat battery or the phone going missing at the key moment. If it were possible to have both types I would but wasn't given that choice.

MilesT6060842

katejo said:

I didn't choose the app version because of the risk of having a flat battery or the phone going missing at the key moment. If it were possible to have both types I would but wasn't given that choice.

Looking at the railcard website, it seems that it is possible to "import" a physical railcard issued at a station into a railcard account.  It might be possible to import a digital one issued by e.g. trainline (who can issue outside of the main railcard website), haven't tried yet to import

If the physical one is known to railcard website, I wonder if you can then get the app to display it as digital if you log into your railcard account.  I haven't ever used the app for e.g. Network/TwoTogether/Family, so I don't have experience  (on my to do list to try an import a 3 year discounted trainline issued Family railcard, and then request a physical replacement for £10)

Some operator issued railcards like Club50 (Greater Anglia version at least) have simultaneous digital and physical (plastic) versions and issue paper/digit temporaries online. This may not be universal as each operator who offers Club50 seems to have a different setup (although Abellio introduced the concept on their franchises GA, Scotrail, this seems to have drifted as abellio exited franchises to nationalisation or to successor Transport UK Group)   

May also be true for regional railcards.