After being successfully trialled in East Anglia earlier this year, the new 26-30 or ‘millennial’ railcard as its been dubbed has finally been confirmed, with Chancellor Phillip Hammond set to announce the advent of the discount programme in tomorrow’s Budget.
The scheme was finally agreed upon by The Treasury once it was proven that the switchover would in fact be revenue neutral. The influx of 26-30 year old’s buying the new railcard is estimated to cover the cost of the initiative, which means the programme practically pays for itself – amazing
This new millennial’s railcard is said to work the same way as the young people’s railcard, which has been around since the mid-70’s. It’ll cost you £30 to buy and shave off a cheeky third of the price of a train ticket, potentially saving up to 4.5 million commuters over £150 a year - each.
Just as with the 16-25 railcard, the millennial’s card will not be effective during peak times or available for use on season tickets, which means that your daily commute to work will still cost you the same as it does now. In fact, it’ll actually be more expensive.
Any amount off the cost of travel is a welcome one I’m sure, but one can’t help but feel that the whole idea is a cunning and elaborate ploy by the Tories to get young people back on board by bribing us with cheaper travel.
Even Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald criticised the scheme saying that the policy
“will do nothing for commuters who have seen the cost of travel rise by 27% since 2010, twice the rate of wages.”
You see, the announcement of the 26-30 railcard comes just weeks before the overall cost of rail travel is expected to go up (yet again) by almost 4% in January, the highest increase since 2013.
Sadly, this yearly fare hike happens because the government directly ties transport fares to the Retail Price Index, so when inflation goes up (which it pretty much always does), so do our transport fares.
The 26-30 millennial railcards are expected to roll out nationally by the spring of 2018.
Like this? You might also be interested in...
What I Learned From Doing My First Proper Commute Into London
Follow Pauline on Instagram @LonelyMonroe
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.