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Senior Railpass or Britrail?

My husband and I will be traveling in Scotland and England in May of 2020 and are looking to use the trains whenever possible since we won't be driving. I'm pretty confused about the Senior Railpass and the Britrail pass. Will both work in both countries? If so, is there an advantage of one over the other? The britrail pass has a continuous option. Does this mean that you have to use the same train at all times? If I sound confused, trust me, I am.

Posted by
34013 posts

I've not heard of a senior railpass. There may be a senior flavour of Britrail passes, but I don't know about that.

Could you be meaning Senior Railcard? That costs £30 per senior and is valid on many trains for one person for a year and gives approximately 1/3 off many tickets.

There is also the Two-Together Railcard which also gives 1/3 off, but costs the same £30 for a year and benefits two named people who must be travelling together at all times for discounts to apply.

How much travelling by rail will you be doing? Where to and from, time of day, will you always be together?

I don't understand your question about the continious option Britrail?

Details on the railcards is at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/46540.aspx Be sure to click through from there to get the most details on each card you are interested in. That is the official site.

Posted by
139 posts

I'm sorry...you're probably confused because I am. Yes, I'm looking at either the Senior Railcard (or Two-together since my husband and I will always travel together) or the full UK Britpass. I am confused about the Britpass options of flexible or consecutive.

Since we won't be driving in either Scotland or England, I'm trying to ensure that the majority of our travel will be by rail with some additions of buses and taxis. We would travel around 8-9:00 mostly from major cities.

I checked the website you included, but can't find a specific mention of the Britpass there.

Posted by
16895 posts

With a consecutive day BritRail Pass, nobody's counting how many trains you take within a solid window of time, such as 8 days continuous. With a flexipass, you still are not counting individual train departures but are counting calendar days, such as 4 travel days that you can spread within a one-month window, and each covers unlimited train travel until midnight of that day. Use passes as much or as little as you like on the counted days - you've already paid. See also Using Your Pass and Great Britain Rail Passes and Train Tips. Britain's Senior Rail Card or Two-Together Rail Card provide discounts (rather than full coverage) on train tickets that you buy over the course of a whole year.

Posted by
34013 posts

The Britrail isn't in with the Railcards because it isn't issued in the UK. The page I linked is for the Railcards, a means of saving money off individual tickets.

Posted by
139 posts

Thank you for all of your help. One last thing. When I went to the rail site and put in some dates/places, the britrail pass didn't appear as an option. There was a list of other rail passes such as the senior and the travel two.

Posted by
2600 posts

If you mean the nationalrail.co.uk site that’s because it shows the discounted price of tickets with either a Senior Railcard or Two Together Card etc. The Britrail Pass doesn’t offer discounted tickets – the pass itself is the ticket.

The Britrail pass offers flexibility – but it isn’t cheap. If you know where you're going and when, and want to save money, look at point to point tickets. The cheapest are called Advance (on sale about 12 weeks before your travel date) – and you can make further savings with the appropriate card.

Posted by
5468 posts

The Britrail pass isn't available to people resident in the UK, so any rail site intended for UK residents will be silent on them.

They might be expensive, but just look at the £540 price of the 7-day all line rover which is available to residents and suddenly it looks cheap. However, it only would pay off for a combination of extensive long distance rail journeys at peak time.