London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · October 30th 16, 12:45 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , (Clive Page)
wrote:

On 28/10/2016 13:46, wrote:
My 3-year Senior Railcard expired on Tuesday so on Monday I renewed it
online. It turns out they add a week to the renewal expiry date for
online renewals to allow for posting the cards out. The new card
actually arrived in the post on Tuesday.

Yesterday I tried to register the railcard on my Oyster card at a ticket
machine at Liverpool St station. When the assistant typed in the
01/11/2019 expiry date it was rejected, apparently for being more than 3
years in the future. He tried 01/11/19 too. Nothing he or his colleagues
could do would get the railcard registered to the Oyster card.

Luckily I had my bike with me and wasn't planning to use Oyster
yesterday. My next visit to London when I might need Oyster won't be
till after 1st November.

But why doesn't TfL recognise that railcard expiry can be more than 3
years away, even if by only a week? This failure must surely be in
breach of their contract with ATOC?

I think I had the same problem - the fairly helpful assistant at
King's Cross managed to renew by Oyster discount for (I think) 2
years. So when this date comes around I will have to remember to get
it extended, somehow. There seems no way of the user discovering the
expiry date of the railcard discount embedded in an Oyster card. As
others have said, the rail operators are hopeless at IT.

Very interesting. I realised contrary to what I wrote above I actually
wanted to use my Oyster card on a trip to London today even without a
railcard discount. I initially expected to use a Day Travelcard but because
of engineering works on SWT I realised I could use tube and bus (free with
my bus pass) to get where I was going for less than a travelcard from
Cambridge costs over and above a London Terminals Day Return.

So I spoke to as helpful assistant as yours, also at King's Cross St Pancras
(maybe the same guy?). He put a 2 year validity on it and told me to get it
fixed when the card had less than 3 years to run. I'll find out if that
causes any complications next month I expect.

It must be possible to set a date as, to his surprise, he found that my
railcard was already registered to the Oyster card as its serial number was
already there, presumably from the failed attempts at Liverpool St (or we
both misread the number - they only differ in one digit, something else to
check next time).

If the ruse works the assistant deserves praise for using his initiative and
being creative. I wish there was more of that on the railway and TfL.

--
Colin Rosenstiel