[crossposted to uk.transport.london - original thread on uk.railway]

On 17 Oct, 11:34, W14_Fishbourne wrote:
On Oct 17, 12:33 am, Mizter T wrote:

A question for you Barry - in years gone by, did the Gold Card
Partner's Card (or was it just Partner Card) afford the 'partner' the
same benefits as a Gold Card (i.e. did it offer the same discounts),
or was it effectively the same thing as a Network Card?

Originally the Gold Card and the Network Card offered identical
benefits. However, because TfL has to agree to any changes in the Gold
Card benefits (because those benefits are available to purchasers of
Travelcards at LU stations) the Gold Card benefits have never changed,
whereas Network Card/Railcard benefits (which don't need TfL's
agreement) have.


I remember that for a significant period (a year if not two, maybe
more?) after the Gold Card was launched in 1987 by Network SouthEast,
London Transport didn't participate in the scheme.

Thus if you bought an annual Travelcard from a London Underground
ticket office or an LT travel information centre during that period
you just got a plain vanilla season ticket with none of the Gold Card
benefits - so passengers who wanted an annual season Travelcard would
have been better off buying it from an NSE ticket office. LT obviously
opted in to the scheme eventually.