14.03.18
‘Millennial railcard’ website crashes due to ‘unprecedented’ demand
The website selling “millennial railcards” crashed as the new cards went on sale yesterday.
Passengers aged 26-30 were supposed to be able to buy the railcards, giving a third off most rail fares in Britain, for the first time as part of a trial.
However, the website struggled to cope with the demand for the digital cards, and some passengers were unable to purchase their railcards.
In a series of tweets National Railcards said that there had been an “unprecedented number” of people visiting the site and that it was struggling.
The first tweet highlighting the problem was sent by National Railcards’ account at 08:43am, with regular updates on the team’s progress to resolve the problem.
However, at 02:54pm a further tweet confirmed that visitors to the website were still experiencing problems.
Many passengers expressed their frustration at being unable to buy the new cards.
By 06:38pm National Railcards confirmed that all of its 10,000 26-30 railcards had sold out and invited people to register their interest for further updates.
The organisation apologised for the difficulties experienced by visitors to the website: “We’re sorry to those who weren’t able to get a trial 26-30 railcard as a result of technical issues.
“We will consider carefully the high demand we’ve seen as part of this trial.”
Top image: Stephane Noiret
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