Rip off. 16/17 year olds should not be classed as adults in first place!
Only in the rip-off UK are 16-17 year olds classed as adults to travel to school. So you have to apply for a £35 railcard to enable student travel. Given I had to go through this ridiculous and time consuming process last year - providing photos and passport details to prove my child was 16 - you would think that when you receive the "your 16-17 railcard is about to expire" email that it would be simple to renew it? Of course not, this is the UK in 2026 where nothing works correctly or efficiently and we're now all expected to do everything ourselves despite the taxes we pay and costs of everything. So once again, dig out passport, take new photo etc etc. Absolute waste of my time for a scheme which shouldn't be necessary in the first place in this country. I have just renewed my own Network Railcard and it was easy, took seconds, just hit renew, check existing details and pay. So it is possible to do this, just laziness on the part of 16-17 railcard that they haven't set it up kie this.