Millennial railcard fiasco shows need to reform UK train fares

The Man Who Pays His Way: first-class fat cats are paying less than the squeezed middle in standard

Virgin Trains offered millenials presenting an avocado a discount after the National Railcards website broke down (Simon Calder)

Here’s a tax dodge for you. To avoid paying VAT on food and drink, buy a first-class rail ticket with a train operator that provides sustenance. Your journey from A to B is zero-rated, and anything that goes with it (meals, alcohol, even a bed on the sleeper trains) escapes the normal 20 per cent tax, too.

Virgin Trains provides an excellent example. As a first-class passenger from Manchester to London, you can choose from dishes such as “sustainably sourced smoked haddock and basmati rice, served with a spicy tomato sauce” along with free booze. Standard class passengers queue up at the on-board shop to pay £6 for a can of lager and a “savoury snack pack”. Philip Hammond collects £1 from them but nothing from you.

That’s the same Chancellor who, last November, heralded “a new railcard for those aged 26 to 30, giving 4.5 million more young people a third off their rail fares”. As it turns out, the 26-30 Railcard is giving only 20,000 young people a third off their rail fares, while leaving millions more furious.

Since January 10,000 young travellers have taken part in the rail industry’s trial of the digital discount card in Greater Anglia. This week the same number of Railcards went on sale online nationwide. Travellers aged 26 to 30, from Penzance to Thurso, were poised to sign up for the closest thing they will see to free money this year.

Predictably, the website buckled under the strain. Most applications ended in fruitless frustration, and all the 26-30 Railcards had gone by teatime. Nigel Harris, editor of Rail magazine, described the fiasco as “classic gesture politics” that backfired horribly.

Virgin Trains promptly launched an “avocard” stunt, offering discounts to anyone aged 26 to 30 carrying an avocado (which must be presented at the ticket office, and carried on the journey). Fruitful for trips to Liverpool Lime Street, but not to Appleby, Peartree, Plumstead or Strawberry Hill because it is valid only on the West Coast main line. And it expires on Tuesday.

Looking further ahead, the Rail Delivery Group said: “We will consider carefully the unprecedented demand we’ve seen as part of this trial.” Unless and until the organisation representing train operators and Network Rail decides to make the railcard available in unlimited quantities, the following absurd scenario will recur.

Booking three days ahead, the Advance fare for this weekend’s prime Friday evening train from Manchester to London, the 19:30, stood at £39.50. That’s what a card-less young person would pay.

Stretching out on the same train, enjoying sustenance and free wifi along with a first-class seat: holders of Senior Railcards. Many of them are in well-paid employment – otherwise they would have opted for standard class along with the squeezed middle who are neither young nor old enough to qualify for cheaper deals.

Yet with one-third off their travel (and their tax-free food and drink), the over-60s are actually paying a few pounds less than standard passengers: £36.95 when bought three days in advance.

That looks to me more like an age-related raffle than sensible pricing. A good transport network must have options for passengers with a wide range of incomes. But it is perverse to charge some well-to-do travellers significantly less than they could or should pay for fast, safe and very comfortable travel.

Time to remove arbitrary age boundaries. Some say Britain needs a national railcard, where you signal your loyalty to train travel by paying a substantial sum in return for a year of discount tickets. In Switzerland, almost every rail user has a “Halbtax” card which gives 50 per cent off and costs 185 Swiss francs (£140) annually. But the unintended consequence, as the Swiss have discovered, is that it disenfranchises occasional users and hapless foreign visitors. There are now calls for the card to be scrapped and for Swiss rail fares to be halved all round instead.

Britain needs complete reform of rail ticketing, too. The fares system is already chaotic enough without the complexity added by railcards. Want to buy a “walk up” off-peak ticket from Edinburgh to Lancaster? While the fare is £39.50, there is no need to pay so much. Obvs, as a millennial might say: just ask for one to Preston instead, 20 miles further down the line, and you save £5.50. Which will almost buy you a can of lager and a “savoury snack pack”. Including VAT.