Millennial 26-30 railcard website crashes within minutes due to demand

Nationwide trial rollout of 10,000 discount passes descends into chaos

Southeastern train travels through Kent
A high-speed Southeastern train travels through the Kent countryside
(Image credit: Carl De Souza/AFP)

A nationwide trial of the so-called “millennial railcard” descended into chaos this morning, with the mad scramble to secure the discount cards causing the website to crash.

But the sign-up site was unable to cope with the high traffic as millennials nationwide battled to secure the passes, which can be used by people aged between 26 and 30, cost £30 and offer a third off most fares in Britain.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Many likened the experience to attempting to buy tickets to a music festival, reports the London Evening Standard. Londoner Emily Thomas tweeted: “Getting a 26-30 railcard is worse than getting a Glastonbury ticket.”

Others also tweeted their dismay.

Some people have questioned why there is a need for another trial of the card, after a trial across the Great Anglia network proved successful.

A spokesperson for the RDG, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said: “We’re sorry to those who have been unable to buy a trial 26-30 Railcard this morning. This is due to the exceptionally high volume of traffic on the 26-30 Railcard website.”

“We are increasing the capacity on the website to better manage the high level of traffic. Railcards are still available to purchase and people should keep checking @Railcard Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.”

The new discount card was announced in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget in November, but “received a mixed response from its target audience”, says the BBC.

Although the decision to make travel cheaper for greater numbers of young people has been widely welcomed, some have said it does not go far enough to solve the transport and economic problems affecting the UK.

Explore More