You write regularly about the difficulties experienced by rail passengers after losing or forgetting their railcards and moves towards introducing digital – and, supposedly, more flexible – alternatives.
However, these are not without problems. When my existing Network Railcard ran out, I renewed it but then changed my phone. I have since found it impossible to get a new digital download code on the railcard website so it can go on my new phone. All I got was an error code. I was twice left on hold with two calls lasting 25 minutes and an email sent last Thursday has not produced a reply.
This cannot be unusual – surely lots of people need to add a railcard after changing phones?
A new case has been opened but I need to wait 10 days for a reply.
SM, Ringwood, Hampshire
There are about 5.3m railcards held nationally, and we agree that in this digital age this shouldn’t have be so complicated. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) runs the railcard scheme under the operating name of National Rail. It admits there were “technical problems” on its website.
However, you first received a reply containing a download code for your Family & Friends Railcard – which you took out to get a discount for a journey to London with your daughter – not the Network Railcard.
We raised this again with the RDG which “fixed” it – again. However it had sent you a code for the card that had run out, not the one you renewed in November.
The RDG says: “We carried out planned maintenance of our website to help improve how people buy and renew their cards. Since the upgrade, we have sold 87,000 railcards and, while the vast majority of customers are not experiencing problems, some technical issues mean certain types of transaction are encountering problems.
“We’re extremely sorry for the inconvenience and are working hard to fix the issues. Unfortunately, SM was sent an incorrect code in the first instance simply down to human error. This has now been rectified and we have offered our sincere apologies.”
Plaudits to the very helpful staff at Southampton Parkway station – who apparently advised you to stick to old-fashioned paper railcards.
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