My stepdaughter needs to travel from home (zone 3) to college (zone 1) every day. As she’s 16 she is too old to get child rate fares on London Underground. Therefore we’ve bought her a monthly travelcard[1] which cost just under £90.
Then last week she comes home with a form from London Transport which will enable her to apply for a “young person’s photocard”. This entitles people of 16 and 17 to get unspecified discounts on travel in London.
So I’ve done some research and found out what these discounts are. She can get a “Youth LT Card” which is apparently 30% cheaper than the equivalent travelcard. Now bear in mind that a travelcard gives you unlimited travel on all London’s tubes, buses and trains. The LT Card was an experimental system from a few years ago that was just like a travelcard but excludes train travel. The LT Card now only exists as a Youth LT Card and a couple of other exotic variations.
Let’s look at those figures again. You get 30% off the price of the ticket, but you lose a third of the benefits. Can you see a flaw in that plan?
In our case we’ll probably go ahead with it as she rarely uses the train, but all in all it’s a good example of a good deal which really isn’t as good as it’s made out to be.
[1] Actually an Oystercard.