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UK railways/railcard questions

My wife and I are visiting the UK in a couple of weeks time. While there we want to go to a few places by train. Using the national rail website I've worked out this should cost 167 pounds for both of us for all the journeys combined. The railcard we qualify for is the two together one, which is 30 pounds and this will give us 1/3 off. So seems worth it.

However, I need to know how long does this railcard typically take to arrive at a UK address? Also do I need to do anything except pay and provide the photos?

Finally, if I buy the railcard tonight how close to the date of travel can the "advance" tickets be purchased? Do I actually need the railcard in hand to buy the advance tickets or can I order that tonight and order the train tickets tonight as well before I get it in hand? I.e. do I need to give like a railcard ticket number or something or do I just need to tick a box on the website to say that I have the railcard?


Thank you so much if you can answer all this. :smile:
I've always gone into a station to sort out a railcard, see if one you're likely to be at has a desk etc but then take the photos with you and they'll get you to fill out the form and they'll do it there and then (ie stick the photo to the card :tongue:).

On the website you normally just have to tick a box so you can do it whenever! The only time you actually need to have a railcard is when you're actually on the train and they're checking tickets.

Enjoy your trip! :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by furryface12
I've always gone into a station to sort out a railcard, see if one you're likely to be at has a desk etc but then take the photos with you and they'll get you to fill out the form and they'll do it there and then (ie stick the photo to the card :tongue:).

On the website you normally just have to tick a box so you can do it whenever! The only time you actually need to have a railcard is when you're actually on the train and they're checking tickets.

Enjoy your trip! :smile:


That's great, thanks for the answer. :smile:

Btw, do you know how far in advance you have to buy the advance tickets? I keep putting off buying them because I'm unsure of one date but I don't want to get too close to them no longer being available.
Original post by Sabertooth
That's great, thanks for the answer. :smile:

Btw, do you know how far in advance you have to buy the advance tickets? I keep putting off buying them because I'm unsure of one date but I don't want to get too close to them no longer being available.


I'll say a week but I'm not sure if there's another deadline before then. I've definitely had prices of things go up around a week before though. Also check peak times as these can make a huge difference to the price if you can avoid them, I think they vary company to company and different stations which is stupid but if all the prices suddenly go up after a certain time then I guess that's pretty obvious. Hopefully someone can come back and clarify anyway!
Reply 4
Original post by furryface12
I'll say a week but I'm not sure if there's another deadline before then. I've definitely had prices of things go up around a week before though. Also check peak times as these can make a huge difference to the price if you can avoid them, I think they vary company to company and different stations which is stupid but if all the prices suddenly go up after a certain time then I guess that's pretty obvious. Hopefully someone can come back and clarify anyway!


Ok cool. Thanks a lot furry! :five:
Reply 5
****ing hell. :mad: Took me almost 2 hours to buy the tickets. The virgin rail site is the absolute worst website I have ever the displeasure of using.
Reply 6
Omg yes. I can't believe how frustrating it was. I actually got a nosebleed I got so angry with it.

I accidentally chose a journey with 2 transfers rather than one, tried to change it, no way to delete on virgin site. Went back to national rail and changed it - virgin site added all the journeys so then I had 2 of each, again, no way to delete them. Even deleting the cookies didn't zero the ****ing thing. Then it wanted me to pick up all my tickets from the last station on my trip...what the ****ing hell? The option to have them mailed to me randomly disappeared. So then I tried to change that by deleting a ticket and trying to re-add it and it had increased from 20 pounds to 80. For some reason you can't go back a step and it doesn't tell you what happens if you go forward :confused: I'm actually going to give them a call when I get to the UK and tell them how ****ing useless their piece of **** site is.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 7
Yep. It didn't even take my first card for some unknown reason so now I have to remember to bring my backup card with me. (do you know btw if you can pick up the tickets from the counter with just the reference number? I know you need the card for the machine)

Last time I was in the UK I used thetrainline and only decided not to use them as they now charge a booking fee. Needless to say, that pound or whatever is absolutely worth it. I thought though, Virgin, main train company, can't be that bad - oh how wrong I was.

And yes thanks, I think I managed to sort it. Though hopefully didn't get any of the journeys wrong given I entered them literally about 15 times each. :crossedf:




Tbh it's still probably better than Amtrak.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Sabertooth
Yep. It didn't even take my first card for some unknown reason so now I have to remember to bring my backup card with me. (do you know btw if you can pick up the tickets from the counter with just the reference number? I know you need the card for the machine)

Last time I was in the UK I used thetrainline and only decided not to use them as they now charge a booking fee. Needless to say, that pound or whatever is absolutely worth it. I thought though, Virgin, main train company, can't be that bad - oh how wrong I was.

And yes thanks, I think I managed to sort it. Though hopefully didn't get any of the journeys wrong given I entered them literally about 15 times each. :crossedf:




Tbh it's still probably better than Amtrak.


Whenever I have picked up tickets before they have only been available from the machine with the card that was used. Staff at the desks said they could not print pre booked tickets for me.

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