HELP! DS has lost his 16-25 railcard & has tickets to travel on Monday - will they enforce the "pay full fare" rule?

[Ponders]

The rules are:

"6. You must carry your Railcard with you on your journey and when asked by rail staff, you must show a valid ticket and valid Railcard. If you fail to do so, you will be required to pay the full price Standard Single fare for your journey as if no ticket was purchased before starting the journey and in some cases a Penalty Fare. This does not apply if there was no ticket office at the station at which you began your journey or if the ticket office was closed and there was no ticket machine from which you could buy a discounted ticket."

The damn thing only arrived a week ago - he put it in his wallet (at my suggestion ) & now has lost his wallet aaaargh. Hasn't had it since Wednesday (he thinks) & only missed it this morning when he was looking for his bank card.

The helpline for railcards only operates 9-5 Mon-Fri which is really helpful as he'll be leaving the house at 8am on Monday for a 10.30 train.

I have accumulated for him to carry

1. the letter that came with the railcard (which is undated )
2. a record of the railcard number
3. my credit card statement showing the transaction
4. the email he was sent confirming the transaction.

His tickets to London cost over £40 so if he doesn't go at all that will be lost, & if he does go & they insist on him paying full fare that will be a lot more (& he can't pay it anyway, he'll only have about £30 on him)

Has anyone experienced this? How do rail staff actually handle it? Is it down to the individual?

Do you have the reciept?

I lost mine last year and went to the local station with the proof of purchase, where they replaced it for £5.

hmmm tough one,
i think he may have to pay the fare tbh. i know you have some forms of verification, but that railcard could have been for anyone iyswim?

he could ask at the ticket office on mon morning though and show them all the things and see what they say. ultimately though if he meets a narky ticket inspector he mnight be done for

No, we got it online - it was simpler at the time, downloading a photo etc - those can only be replaced online, & I don't think it would get here by Monday morning (although it wouldn't hurt to try I suppose)

Here

Just go to any station tomorrow and get it replaced.

Oh bummer yes it says that on the link.

The letter that came with the railcard has his name & address on, tiy, & we thought if he takes his passport & a bank statement as well that might swing it? (He'll have more paperwork than luggage )

But even if he gets down there OK, he may run into trouble coming back. Oh it's not FAAAAAIR!!!

can you get it replaced online and take with him the confirmation email saying that a replacement has been requested and is on its way?

Oh yes, we could try that too, couldn't we, aam?

Also I've just gone into the "replace card" section & discovered that all the information we input before is still there so I've also now printed:

the home page stating "card sent 24/07/2009"

the personal details page which includes name, address, date of birth, amount paid & email address

application summary page with the same information AND THE PHOTO WE DOWNLOADED!!!

(7 pages so far )

Done it - 9 pages now with the website page acknowledging the replacement order, and the email confirming it.

Surely anybody reasonable would accept all that...?

Well he got down to London with his ticket & no card!

There was a lot of toing & froing between information desks but eventually he got his ticket stamped; & his replacement card arrived yesterday & has been posted down to him so as long as a) it arrives & b) he doesn't lose it before Friday he should be OK to travel back up. Phew.