Rail passengers claim they waited up to five hours in queue for new Millennial Railcard

National Rail's new digital-only Railcard
National Rail
Olivia Tobin3 January 2019

Eager rail passengers looking to purchase the new Millennial railcard claim they waited up to five hours in the queue.

The Millennial railcard went on sale at 12pm on Wednesday, but initial demand was so high that many frustrated buyers took to social media to complain they had been stuck in a queue.

The new card, similar to the already-popular 16 to 25 card, will cut rail fares by a third and can be bought via an online application system.

There was a huge surge of customers trying to buy the new card and they were held in a queueing system to try and prevent the site from crashing.

National Rail likened its operation to the system used by Glastonbury Festival to distribute tickets, to try and avoid any crashes.

Prospective customers were told the wait would be longer than an hour 

Some have claimed they were waiting up to five hours for the new card despite this though. There is an unlimited number of cards for the four million-plus Brits aged 26 to 30 and the cards are available to buy at anytime.

But some wanted to buy their railcards on the first day it was available so they could use their discount on their journey home.

Many claim they were faced with a warning telling them they would be waiting at least more than an hour to buy a card.

One frustrated buyer wrote on Twitter: “Been sitting here since 9am waiting for the website to open, then when the 26-30 Railcard goes live I am still sitting here three hours later.”

Another customer claimed she had been waiting over four hours.

She wrote: "4 hours and 10 minutes later *hyperventilates* #railcard".

While another claimed they had to wait a staggering six hours.

Elita Unyolo wrote: "6.5 hours later and I'm less than a minute away."

A spokesman for National Rail told the Times: “We are experiencing high demand for the 26-30 Railcard which is resulting in higher wait times than usual.

"To ensure we give customers a great experience, we have put into place the same type of technology used by other businesses, such as Glastonbury.

“When customers access the 26-30 Railcard website they are automatically put into a live queue and are able to sign up to receive email alerts, so that they do not have to wait by their computer.

“There isn't a limited number of railcards being made available, so anyone who isn't planning to travel [immediately] can come back another day to make their 26-30 Railcard purchase."

The train operator said customers can purchase the card at any time.

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