Great Western Coffee Shop

From The News (https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/portsmouth-mp-calls-for-veterans-railcard-1-9051541) in Portsmouth

I believe there have also been calls for railcards for ex-young persons and future old persons.

Maybe one day I'll have a TOC loyalty card next to the Tesco Club Card in my wallet accruing "rail miles".

It's an interesting thought.

If you can get a discount on rail travel because of a job you used to do, then I should still be getting 7 free passes a year and quarter rate privilege travel...

I worked for Safeway in my late teens/early 20s. Got 12.5% staff discount.

Can I get that again with Morrison's please?

Question is, "is staff discount covered by TUPE ?"

As an former Reservist (16 years served) it would be great if it's extended to my ilk also :)

I'd probably travel more by rail as a result.

24****39 Trooper TonyK, formerly Duke of Lancasters Own Yeomanry, fired guns, rowed canoes, got very drunk, and guarded Gibraltar with a loaded rifle, although without instructions as to who to use it upon, and not necessarily in that order, in the early 1970s. I learned a tiny bit of Spanish while swapping cigarettes with the enemy through the fence(I no longer smoke) and remember well the order to not shoot any of the Barbary Apes, as it costs money to ship them over. I now have a Senior Git railcard, so I suppose it matters not.

One of my sons-in-law is in the RAF. If you watched the series of fighter pilot training on ITV, you will see in the opening credits a shot of the Voyager refuelling tanker, taken from the aircraft that he was on, escorting and refuelling some F35s back to what is still for the moment the UK. He has often been in the US, and recently took my daughter and two grandsons on holiday on a coast there. He produced his military ID and received discounts up to 100% at a number of attractions, with "Thank you for your service" as the greeting, despite him being a freeloader serving the last few months of his 23 years. I am sure he would love a former services railcard to help him eke out his service pension. And his mammoth salary as a civvy aircraft engineer.

There are a number of perks available to our armed forces members, past and present, such as free entry to any of the royal palaces, and indulgence flights, being a spare seat on an aircraft to anywhere the RAF flies, at a massive discount. Fair play, I say - they don't get paid much, and the medals don't put bread on the table.

I've had similar experiences in the US, and even when I no longer had a Military ID the mere mention of service was enough to provoke the type of responses you mention.


I never, ever did that during my military service  ;) Oh well maybe there was that time in Cyprus, Germany, The Falklands, Sardinia, Benbecula.....!

I have always thought that ex service personnel have long received shabby treatment in this country compared to some others - most noticeably the USA. If any ex servicemen on this forum are not aware, there is now an official discount card available to them. https://www.defencediscountservice.co.uk/   My card is most definitely going to the USA with me in October - I'll need it for the coach to Heathrow anyway !

In some areas this card highlights the surprising attitude by even some ex service personnel organisations to their one time comrades.
I can get 30% off on National Express Coaches and the same off entrance to Longleat, even Halfords will give me 10% .................but - The Fleet Air Arm Museum or the Tank Museum.........nowt !!! 

PS: Portsmouth Historic Dockyard does give 30% too...and various discounted prices to other Veteran/Association members.

Lovely wild scenery there, but apart from that.. Yes, perhaps acceptable!  :o

So US attractions give discounts to non-US armed forces personnel? That's curious. I wonder if they'd give it to Russian forces!

Aka "Benbeculiar." Wild scenery, empty beaches, variable weather....very similar to the South Atlantic islands, except that at the former the beaches were at least clear of mines! (and on the ones that weren't mined the smelliest penguins I've ever had the displeasure of being close to)

Maybe not mines, but when I was - briefly - there, Ordnance were kept busy clearing the rocks of Javelin missiles that had belly-flopped.

Ex-REME, with excursions with the Artillery etc. Even did a few circuits of the Longmoor Military Railway before that vanished, and still have my slim copy of the Military Railway Rule Book.

Didn't manage anywhere exciting, just the usual places UK, Germany, and Northern Ireland. And of excursions to some delightful training areas; Hohne, Salisbury, Thetford/Stanford etc, usually at the worst time of year when you have put every bit of kit on and you are still cold stood in some slit trench.

You talk of ex-young persons and future old persons railcards, when you have the old persons railcard the future progression is limited, especially as the funeral platforms no longer exist at Waterloo.

Spent 2 weeks (!) as an Army Cadet there one summer holiday on the railway operations course.
Not sure what I loved most, perhaps being in the box at Longmoor or assisting shunting operations.
They also had an excellent working 'O' gauge layout of their track on which to train us (no pun intended).
Loved every minute of that two weeks.

My work up there usually involved loading or off-loading Tracked Rapier (in-by-inch as it was a tight fit) from a C130.
If positioning up or back (from Lyneham) with enough space a Land Rover or Sherpa minibus would be taken to able us to go exploring between flights!

I don't remember anything too malodorous about this happy group I got to papp on the Falklands, although it was very windy.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48666611868_3b2f201ae3_c.jpg)

One learnt very quickly not to linger behind them! (not just because of the smell)