I have just been on line trying to buy the THW a "Young Persons Travel Card". For an annual fee of £26 she will get 1/3 off all rail fares (subject to Ts & Cs) and a variety of other discounts. This could be cheaper than me running her to and fro and since the cards are usable by "Young People" up to the age of 25 seems to me to be likely to get some use. Understandably they want a passport sized photo but then we come to the tricky question of proving her identity.
Her Student Union Card is not acceptable.
Her Cash Point Card is not acceptable.
Her Card for the College Library is not acceptable.
She has no "utility bills in her own name but anyway they would not be acceptable as they wouldn't show her age.
So what is acceptable? ~ A Passport or a Current UK Driving Licence ~ nothing else will do it according to the website.
Obviously at 16 she does not have a current UK driving licence and she doesn't have a passport. To buy her a passport would take weeks and cost £77.50 which I feel would negate any savings on rail travel for the next several years.
I have telephoned the "Help Desk"
"Surely not all sixteen year olds have their own passport ~ do they not tend to travel on Group Passports obtained for each trip by their school?"
"What about when she goes on holiday?"
"Last time I looked passports were not required to leave Wales or to go to Dorset on holiday with her family"
"Owh! Don't she go abroad then?"
"Only with the school, we haven't been abroad as a family since it became necessary for children to have their own passports ~ she used to travel on her Mother's passport"
"Owh! I fought everyone went abroad on holiday"
"Not when you live on a pension and have three children to pay for you don't"
"Owh! ~ Well I s'pose if she took her berf certificate to the nearest station she could buy the card there"
"But our nearest station is unmanned, as are the next 4 along the line."
"Owh! Well that's all she can do"
