Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

In article ,
(Theo Markettos) wrote:

Michael R N Dolbear wrote:
The ability to add the Railcard and thus the railcard capping discount
to your Oyster has been around since 2008 and I got my sister to try
it early that year. She got it done at King's Cross with no problem.
Since she needs to carry the Railcard anyway for her trips to London
there was no additional complication though now she has a English bus
pass she doesn't use her Oyster much in London.

FWIW I looked at this in 2009ish, but I first would have had to register
my Oyster card before I could then add my 16-25 Railcard on top. Since
I don't live in London, and mostly use PAYG without reaching my daily
cap, I decided there wasn't much to be gained.

In addition, paper travelcards (eg those bought with my train ticket to
London) avoid all the issues with touching in/out not recording station
interchanges correctly (and charging penalties) that have been much
discussed here in the recent past.

You need to register it now then. Otherwise you won't get the discounts on
individual fares that have applied since January (and last year to NR
fares in Greater London).

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS PLEASE!!
 

On Sun, 15 May 2011 21:01:18 +0100, Peter Smyth wrote:

Londonbanter and all the other *banter web interfaces are being filtered
out by individual.net now, as well.

Are they? I'm using news.individual.net and I saw the original post.

Mee to :)

--
jhk

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount-THOUGHTS PLEASE!!
 

On 14/05/2011 15:25, Jack wrote:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

The National Railcard (or Gold Card) discount gives up to a third off
Off-Peak Oyster single fares
Peak single fares apply between 06:30 and 09:30,Mon - Fri (excluding
public holidays). Peak single fares also apply between 16:00 and
19:00 Mon-Fri (exlcluding public holidays), except for journeys using
TfL (Tube, DLR, London Overground), starting outside Zone 1 and ending
inside Zone 1
Off-Peak Oyster single fares apply at all other times

I can't see the text you quoted anywhere on the web page the URL of
which you stated - or any pages linked to that. I certainly wasn't
aware that the peak charge didn't apply to journeys starting outside
Zone 1. How odd.


--
Clive Page

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount-THOUGHTS PLEASE!!
 

On 13/05/2011 15:55, hayley.moorey wrote:
Also, what are your thoughts on the way this new scheme was publicised?
Do you think it was publicised enough? Do people know enough about it?

I wasn't aware that it had been publicised anywhere - I learned about it
from this newsgroup and have told a few friends who were all totally
unaware of the facility.

Despite a number of stories reporting difficulties, my wife and I have
both managed to get our Senior Railcards loaded on our Oyster cards - at
Farringdon Station I think. Since I've seen nothing official about the
rules I had no idea that I had to carry my Senior Railcard with me to
make this valid, thought that seems reasonable enough (and I always do
carry it, since generally starting my journey on National Rail).

It has, unexpectedly, made tube travel a good bit cheaper, since most
zone 1 trips now cost us only £1-25 instead of £1-90 provided we avoid
the peak hours.

There are still lots of things I don't know about the scheme - e.g. does
the Oyster Card discount automatically end when the Railcard expires, or
do I need to visit a TfL station to get a new one re-registered. It
would be good if TfL had more information available. Indeed the whole
Oyster Card system is so complicated that it needs a whole book of rules
and explanations before one can make use of it sensibly (though as far
as I know nothing like this is available).

--
Clive Page

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS PLEASE!!
 

"Clive Page" wrote in message
...

There are still lots of things I don't know about the scheme - e.g. does
the Oyster Card discount automatically end when the Railcard expires, or
do I need to visit a TfL station to get a new one re-registered.

Yes of course, otherwise there'd be a perpetual railcard discount for people
not entitled? To renew automatically you'd need an automatic link from
railcard issue on paper stock to Oyster, for that subset of railcard holders
with an Oyster card. Can't see an organisation such as Northern trains
setting that up...

...It would be good if TfL had more information available. Indeed the
whole Oyster Card system is so complicated that it needs a whole book of
rules and explanations before one can make use of it sensibly (though as
far as I know nothing like this is available).

There are both hard copy and internet versions available of a comprehensive
Oyster handbook, which was certainly issued at ticket offices back in the
day when I got my Oyster Card.

A problem is that people with eligible railcards probably never read the
updated instructions that come with them, especially if they have one that
can be renewed online.

However for prospective Oyster cardholders the page he
https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do
has a discounts link in the box marked 'get an Oyster Card'.
Follow that and there is an obvious link to this:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/18343.aspx

But if you were to buy your first card from a vending machine (or one of the
updated LU ticket machines) and then rely on hearsay or guesswork to make
sense of it...

Paul S

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

There are still lots of things I don't know about the scheme -
e.g. does the Oyster Card discount automatically end when the
Railcard expires, or do I need to visit a TfL station to get a
new one re-registered.

Yes of course, otherwise there'd be a perpetual railcard discount
for people not entitled? To renew automatically you'd need an
automatic link from railcard issue on paper stock to Oyster, for
that subset of railcard holders with an Oyster card. Can't see an
organisation such as Northern trains setting that up...

The trouble is you get no warning of this because no part of the system
accessible to users shows whether a railcard is loaded or not. I was
caught out when my railcard expired but I did get a refund for the
discount I missed. I now have a three year railcard so a repeat will be
long-deferred.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

wrote in message
...

The trouble is you get no warning of this because no part of the system
accessible to users shows whether a railcard is loaded or not. I was
caught out when my railcard expired but I did get a refund for the
discount I missed. I now have a three year railcard so a repeat will be
long-deferred.

But why would any reasonable person assume that the entitlement would not
lapse with the railcard expiry - I'm assuming as a Cambridge traveller you'd
be aware of your 'paper' railcard running out?

It's a slightly different issue for someone with an annual travelcard loaded
on Oyster - who might then assume (or hope) that the Gold Card entitlement
would automatically add itself to the card, but that seems to be a separate
issue IMHO.

Paul S

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

In article ,
(Paul Scott) wrote:

wrote in message
...

The trouble is you get no warning of this because no part of the
system accessible to users shows whether a railcard is loaded or not.
I was caught out when my railcard expired but I did get a refund for
the discount I missed. I now have a three year railcard so a repeat
will be long-deferred.

But why would any reasonable person assume that the entitlement
would not lapse with the railcard expiry - I'm assuming as a
Cambridge traveller you'd be aware of your 'paper' railcard running
out?

It's a slightly different issue for someone with an annual
travelcard loaded on Oyster - who might then assume (or hope) that
the Gold Card entitlement would automatically add itself to the
card, but that seems to be a separate issue IMHO.

It was an oversight. A senior moment even. :-)

It is very easy to overlook when you hardly use Oyster as I do and the
card renewal and trip were some time apart with no indication on use of
the existence of the railcard.

Also, I hardly go to tube ticket offices. My only recent regular Oyster
use has been on NR, topping up at ticket stops. None of them can handle
railcard registration.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

Article on National Railcard and Oyster link for travel discount- THOUGHTS
 

In article ,
(Theo Markettos) wrote:

wrote:
You need to register it now then. Otherwise you won't get the
discounts on individual fares that have applied since January
(and last year to NR fares in Greater London).

Ah. I didn't realise there were discounts on point-point tube/bus
fares. I almost never use National Rail in Greater London (other than
travel beyond the zones), so haven't bothered with that.

If you're travelling from Cambridge like me and only making a couple of
zones 1 and 2 off-peak journeys you're being ripped off if you buy an
Off-Peak Day Travelcard. OTOH a Super Off-Peak Day Travelcard is good
value.

--
Colin Rosenstiel