Estimated passenger savings from change to the 16-17 Saver railcard
Published 3 August 2026
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/estimated-passenger-savings-from-change-to-the-16-17-saver-railcard/estimated-passenger-savings-from-change-to-the-16-17-saver-railcard
Change will save an average of £175
From 17 August 2026, the 16-17 Saver railcard is valid for a full 12 months from the date of purchase, instead of expiring when the holder turns 18.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has calculated that this will save the average affected cardholder £175.
More than 70,000 cardholders were affected in the past year.
This document shares:
- how DfT calculated this saving
- the data that DfT used for the calculation
Calculating average additional passenger savings
To estimate the average additional saving, we calculate the average amount a passenger saves each day using a 16-17 Saver, based on ticket sales data from rail year 2025 to 2026. A rail year is the railway industry’s accounting year, consisting of 13 4-week rail periods used for reporting, allocating and settling ticket revenue across the industry.
We then identify 16-17 Savers purchased with less than a full year of validity and apply the average daily saving to the additional days of discounted travel provided under the new policy.
This provides an estimate of the average additional saving for passengers whose 16-17 Saver would previously have expired before they received a full year of discounted travel.
The estimate assumes savings accrue evenly over time and that passenger travel behaviour remains unchanged. It does not reflect potential behavioural responses to the policy, such as changes in journey frequency, ticket choice, or take-up of the 16-17 Saver, which could increase or decrease the savings realised in practice.
Data used for this analysis
This analysis used data from Latest Earnings Networked Nationally Overnight settlement system (LENNON). This system holds information on most national rail tickets purchased in Great Britain and is used to allocate the revenue from ticket sales between train operating companies (TOCs).
As an administrative source based on ticket sales records rather than survey data, it is not subject to sampling errors. However, assumptions are applied to adjust or distribute ticket sales for certain types of tickets such as season tickets.
Affected 16-17 Savers are identified using the number of days of validity remaining on the Saver at the time of purchase, as recorded in LENNON. This provides a reasonable approximation of the number of passengers using a 16-17 Saver who would have previously turned 18 before receiving a full year of discounted travel.
Internal quality assurance is undertaken by the Department for Transport.
Contact information
For more information, contact the rail stats team rail.stats@dft.gov.uk.