The Family and Friends Railcard is an annual rail travel discount card for use in Great Britain by adults travelling with at least one child. Cards valid for either one or three years can be purchased at a cost of £30 for one year or £70 for three. It is one of the discounted and concessionary fare schemes available on Britain's railway network to people who either belong to particular groups or who are willing to buy tickets ahead of the date of travel. Before 18 May 2008 it was known as the Family Railcard, but the name was changed to reflect the fact that discounted travel is not restricted to adults and children who are related. History Following the introduction of the Young Persons Railcard and Senior Railcard earlier in the 1970s, and the implementation throughout that decade of a wide range of short-term promotional fares and other offers for children travelling with adults, British Rail announced at the beginning of 1979 that they intended to introduce a new Railcard to give permanent discounts for adult-and-child groups. The original plan was for a £4.00 "one-adult" card—this would give no discount for the Railcard holder, but up to four accompanying children would be able to travel for £0.50 each on various off-peak tickets—and a £9.00 "two-adult" card, on which a second adult could be named; they would also pay £0.50 when travelling with the first named adult. In both cases, the Railcard holder would need a British Rail "Photocard" (numbered photographic identity card). The intended launch date was 1 May 1979. When the scheme was introduced on an experimental basis on 17 June 1979, there was only one change from the proposals: the prices of the single-holder and joint-holder Railcards were set at £5.00 and £10.00 respectively. As from 1 March 1980, the Railcard became a permanent scheme. Also at this point, the prices rose to £8.00 and £16.00 respectively, and on the joint-holder card, the minimum age for the second named holder was lowered from 18 to 14 (before being raised to 16, British Rail's standard transition age from child to adult status, on 29 November 1981). At this stage, Railcards were issued with an expiry date, rather than being valid from their date of issue for a specific length of time. In connection with this, for a period during late 1980, both cards were reduced in price to