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Will a 16-25 Railcard pay for itself?

Tell us roughly how many train tickets you buy in a year and what one usually costs. We’ll work out what a third off would save you, take off the price of the card, and show how many trips it takes to break even.

1 Your train travel

Train tickets you buy a yearCount a return ticket as one ticket. Rough is fine — for example 2 trips home a term plus a few days out.

How many of them are for weekday trains before 10am (optional)Monday to Friday, not Advance tickets, not in July or August and not on public holidays. These can’t be reduced below the minimum fare. (The minimum is £12.)

What one of those tickets usually costs at full adult priceThe normal price without a railcard. Look it up on a journey planner if you’re not sure.

2 Which card

1-year cardDigital or plastic — online or at a staffed ticket office£35

3-year cardOnline only — buy it before your 24th birthday£80

Start again

How it works

Count the tickets you buy in a typical year — a return counts as one.
Enter what one usually costs without a railcard. If your trips vary, use a rough average.
Pick the card. We take a third off each ticket, then take off what the card costs per year (the 3-year card is spread over three years).

The answer appears here. You can share or bookmark the link to your figures.

Your result

Not on these figures

£35worse off a year

Your year in numbers
Tickets at full price	£0
What you’d pay with the card	£0
You save on fares	£0
The card, per year	−£35
Better (or worse) off a year	£35

At £0 off a ticket, the card pays for itself after — a year — or once you’d have spent about £105 a year on full-price tickets it can be used on.

1-year card — per year−£35

3-year card — per year−£26.67

What this calculator does and doesn’t do

It uses the official prices: £35 for a 1-year card and £80 for a 3-year card (key figures, Checked 17 October 2026).
It takes a third off every ticket. Real fares are set by the train companies, so your exact saving can differ by a few pence.
On weekdays, trains before 10am have a £12 minimum fare — except Advance tickets, public holidays and July and August. Use the optional box for tickets this affects. Read the discount and the morning rule.
Some tickets get no discount at all — Season tickets, Eurostar and most Tube tickets, for example. Leave those out. See which tickets it works on.
For the official figures on average savings, and worked examples, read is a 16-25 Railcard worth it?