elycommuter
Member
- Joined
- 25 Apr 2013
- Messages
- 10
Once again, I have lost my annual season ticket. I am really annoyed with myself: I've spent hours looking for it, and it's wrecked my week. Probably it slipped out of my pocket on a train, possibly down the side of the seat - however, I travelled on the services of four different train companies during the 36-hour period when I could have lost it, so my ticket could now be almost anywhere in England or Scotland.
This wouldn't be so bad if season tickets were replaceable without restriction; but unfortunately, only one replacement is allowed per year. Last year I lost my ticket with 3 months to run, and spent those 3 months terrified that I would lose it again. This time I have 6 months to run on my ticket, so I'll be carrying an extremely expensive and irreplaceable piece of card in my pocket for the remainder of the year. Most people wouldn't be happy carrying a fat pile of £50 notes everywhere they went for months, but somehow we're expected to do this with season tickets. I can get insurance against loss/theft of my mobile phone, but seemingly not for my season ticket, which is worth many times more than my phone. It seems very wrong to me that I should need to worry about losing the right to rail travel that I have paid for, since the four-figure price is not actually the cost of the physical piece of card that I have lost.
Rail company websites have a list of silly tips for protecting season tickets, such as "Do not cut or tear your ticket." (yeah, I'm sure that's a common problem, accidentally attacking a your season ticket with the kitchen scissors). But they don't say anything sensible about avoiding loss. Season tickets, unlike passports and driving licences, need to be produced several times a day for inspection throughout their validity, often at a few seconds notice - so I can't carry it inaccessibly under my clothes. Season tickets are provided in lightweight shiny plastic wallets, which slip very easily out of pockets, especially if I'm not wearing a jacket with inside pockets. A season ticket also needs to be shown together with a photocard, hence the special wallet. Some season tickets cost enormous sums of money: up to £35,872.00 for a 1st Class annual season from Berwick-upon-Tweed to London Zones 1-6. You can buy a home in some parts of the country for less than that. I can't believe anybody would take the risk of carrying an uninsurable piece of card with that value, subject to the rule that it can only be replaced once a year (or twice if genuinely stolen). Or am I just paranoid?
I would be very glad to hear any advice about this - including practical ways to carry a season ticket securely yet accessibly, or any way to insure a ticket financially against loss.
This wouldn't be so bad if season tickets were replaceable without restriction; but unfortunately, only one replacement is allowed per year. Last year I lost my ticket with 3 months to run, and spent those 3 months terrified that I would lose it again. This time I have 6 months to run on my ticket, so I'll be carrying an extremely expensive and irreplaceable piece of card in my pocket for the remainder of the year. Most people wouldn't be happy carrying a fat pile of £50 notes everywhere they went for months, but somehow we're expected to do this with season tickets. I can get insurance against loss/theft of my mobile phone, but seemingly not for my season ticket, which is worth many times more than my phone. It seems very wrong to me that I should need to worry about losing the right to rail travel that I have paid for, since the four-figure price is not actually the cost of the physical piece of card that I have lost.
Rail company websites have a list of silly tips for protecting season tickets, such as "Do not cut or tear your ticket." (yeah, I'm sure that's a common problem, accidentally attacking a your season ticket with the kitchen scissors). But they don't say anything sensible about avoiding loss. Season tickets, unlike passports and driving licences, need to be produced several times a day for inspection throughout their validity, often at a few seconds notice - so I can't carry it inaccessibly under my clothes. Season tickets are provided in lightweight shiny plastic wallets, which slip very easily out of pockets, especially if I'm not wearing a jacket with inside pockets. A season ticket also needs to be shown together with a photocard, hence the special wallet. Some season tickets cost enormous sums of money: up to £35,872.00 for a 1st Class annual season from Berwick-upon-Tweed to London Zones 1-6. You can buy a home in some parts of the country for less than that. I can't believe anybody would take the risk of carrying an uninsurable piece of card with that value, subject to the rule that it can only be replaced once a year (or twice if genuinely stolen). Or am I just paranoid?
I would be very glad to hear any advice about this - including practical ways to carry a season ticket securely yet accessibly, or any way to insure a ticket financially against loss.