hsmall

You'll have seen that the gold card zone has been widened to make it bigger than the network card zone and goes beyond Birmingham. On the off chance I wondered if anyone had been able to find a cheaper gold card yielding annual season ticket than Ryde Esplanade to Ryde St John's? I have played around with what look as if they might be short journeys but haven't been able to find anything to beat it.

stut

Yes - Lichfield City to Lichfield TV.

Mizter T

That's not (quite) correct. The Annual Gold Card area was extended recently, but this didn't bring with it any extension of the Network Railcard area. In the past they used to cover the same area, but no longer.

* Network Railcard website
* Annual Gold Card info on the National Rail website

stut

And just to add to the confusion, some journeys are no longer covered by the Gold Card (e.g. the Virgin services from London to Milton Keynes Central). And the rarely spotted £5 upgrade has fallen by the wayside too.

Gagravarr

As Stut has pointed out, the cheapest Network Annual Gold Card is for Lichfield City to Lichfield Trent Valley. Last year it was £144, this year it's up to £164. I think it was only about a hundred quid in 2014, just when it joined the zone.

Expect some surprised looks, and possibly a little bit of resistance buying it, and some very odd looks any time a conductor looks hard at the ticket! When I got one last year, the ticket office staff remarked that they'd have to tell their Ryde commuter about it when he came in to renew

hsmall

You are absolutely right. Sorry. I have edited the OP.

Mizter T

No worries!

It's possible to buy annual season tickets online from some rail companies, for example London Midland (who actually run the trains between Lichfield City and Lichfield Trent Valley) or Southern Railway. They'll send it by recorded delivery (aka "Signed for") for no extra cost.

hsmall

Indeed I have just done exactly that with London Midland. You do need to have a photocard though.

Jimmie76

Yeah the £5 went at the start of last year when all the other changes came in. Right bugger that was when it happened as I was a regular user. Interesting to note that Cross Country are still included but not north of Banbury as per the previous limits.

stut

Wow, am impressed - I barely found anyone who would actually sell me the £5 tickets when they were in existence - the Cotswold Line was the only route I had regular success on...

Jimmie76

My local station (on the Cotswold line) near my Mum is never open on a Sunday and they hadn't loaded the tickets onto the portable ticket machines the Train Managers have. So what we used to do was on the return journey (on a Sunday) they'd sell me a weekend 1st upgrade for the £5 zone on board and then s/he'd mention to the buffet host that I was good for food and drink from now. Then I discovered that the option existed to add them to your ticket online at FGW.com so I bought my tickets there and added the £5 much simpler and quicker.

I went to Exeter (on South Western Trains), Brighton, Ipswich (train manager said don't bother to move when we get to Manningtree), Southend, Banbury etc. Helped if you knew who could actually sell you because they knew how to produce the tickets. The bloke at my local station (who was a legend and had been there since the days of BR) showed me what you needed to key in to an APTIS machine to get it, so that if I was at an unfamiliar station I could tell them.

hsmall

I spoke too soon. When the season ticket was delivered it was an "ordinary" season ticket not a gold card. I called customer services and the following correspondence then ensued (I will keep you updated but you I fear I may have to be persistent):-

From London Midland

Dear [hsmall]

Further to our telephone conversation I have looked into your enquiry and the season ticket you have bought does not entitle you to a Gold Card, as it does not fall into the Gold Card area boundary.

Here is a link to the map of the boundary for your information:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/static...cheme_area.pdf

Yours sincerely
[redacted]
Customer Relations Advisor

From Me

Thank you [redacted]. With respect, it does fall within the boundary. The inner boundary shaded grey on the map is named as the "existing gold card boundary" and dates from when the gold card area was extended last year. All the stations on the map (which is titled "Annual Gold Card Area") are within the NEW area, which differs from the Network Card area. The two Lichfield stations do fall within the Gold Card Area therefore.

See this page, which links to the map.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...pes/46573.aspx


Could I please ask you to look at this again.

Thanks.




[hsmall]

Microwave

Please do keep us apprised as the matter unfolds, I'm watching with interest!

stut

See also this thread from our rather more rail-involved cousins:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=124708

Seems Hatton-Lapworth is now the cheapest journey since the January price rises. And I'd trust Chiltern to get it right above London Midland...

Mizter T

Direct link to buy a season ticket from Chiltern Railways:
http://tickets.chilternrailways.co.uk/ch/en/journeyplanning/seasonmixingdeck


hsmall, I'm sure you'll get there in the end!

On that map, I'm not sure the existence of the old boundary for the Gold Card area is really that helpful - well, I suppose it shows how it has expanded. I assume it is labelled as "Existing Annual Gold Card area boundary" because the map was prepared prior to the expansion, but now that just serves to mislead!