Earlier this year I turned 60, and so became entitled to both a railcard and a national entitlement card (NEC). The railcard (image left of the mauve bar) lasts a year. It cost £80 plus the cost of a passport-style photo (£13), and will last 3 years, i.e. £30 per year. It’s reduced the cost of a journey next weekend from £95 to £60, so has paid its way for the first year already. The application process was entirely online – the photographer (a nearby Timpsons) emailed me the photo as well as providing hard copy.

To use the railcard, I buy tickets from the Trainline website or app, then show the railcard on my phone when tickets are checked en route. All nice and digital. But what about those who can’t do digital, or whose phones aren’t functioning? I’d like a back-up physical equivalent too, please.

The NEC financially cost nothing – I used the same digital photo. As far as I’m aware, it will last the rest of my life. There was some faff taking photographs of my passport with my phone and completing an online application, then about 2 weeks’ wait. During that time I was nervous whether glare on the passport photo would cause my application to be rejected. However, reasonably soon the physical card arrived in the post. It gets me free bus travel all over Scotland and free tram travel within Edinburgh.

To use the NEC, I have to pass the physical card over a reader. It’s some faffsome to extract the my wallet from my rucksack, then extract the card, then repack this stuff. I don’t always want to carry my rucksack, and there isn’t room for my wallet in my kilt pockets. So I want the primary card to be on my phone and the physical card as a backup. (Until now I’ve paid for buses by waving my phone at a reader on the bus, and for tram tickets with a phone app. I want that convenience back.)

I’m very grateful for the free or reduced-cost travel, and I’m aware my criticisms are about first-world problems. However I don’t think my criticisms are unrealistic. Or am I just an ungrateful old git?