Did the diagrams show non-existent services though? We don't have that level of detail at the moment.
It doesn't really matter. The drivers knew they were not going to drive a train that day; they were going to appointments. It would have been obvious this was a "fiddle", though they are much less culpable here than the company who instituted the practice and benefited from it.
I can say from personal experience that a lot of TOC staff are quite uninterested and thus unaware of the details of the staff travel rules, so knowledge of wrongdoing should not be assumed.
You jest but:
And the same goes for managers too. Most of them do not know or do not really care about the minutiae and are more concerned with safety, customer service or keeping the train service running.
It's their job to know the details! And whether they knew the details or not, they were fully aware that they were presenting a document stating that they were going to be driving a train that they were not going to be driving. If the details alleged are true, knowledge of wrongdoing is not assumed, it's absolutely evident.
That they weren't supposed to draw up fraudulent diagrams is not "minutiae".
Because the title of the article includes "cost taxpayer millions", which clearly can't be the case.
It is very obvious if you are being given a fake diagram for a train you are not going to work that it cannot possibly be legitimate.
I suspect many cases it is simply no one knows it exists - the attitude will be - well it's duty travel isn't it. Or it's been interpreted as all duty travel needs either a diagram or letter of explanation, and I wouldn't be shocked if a manager has phoned up head office in the past and been told "print off a diagram, we don't have time to issue letters", because head office aren't even aware of it and it's just become accepted custom. Indeed in the past I have seen letters issues by operators to attend these things which say "travel free with this letter and show it to any staff on board a long with your pass" - with nothing about "don't use duty passes".
That the headline doesn't reflect the details of the story doesn't in itself make it a non-story. The story is that (a branch of) the government was systematically defrauding private companies. Not in any way a non-story.
I wouldn't be at all shocked if an RPO in the past phoned control and gone "Are DRS staff allowed to travel on our trains, yes this man has ID (likely uniform), a safety critical card and what appears to be a diagram - yes that's fine is it, no problem". Or control have phoned DRS who have said "yes this person is employed with us and on railway business today" and then it has filtered down as - yes we've confirmed they can travel - which then gets spread around all the staff. "Yes we get DRS staff travelling, checked it out - with our control and theirs no problem". And then if control have confirmed it, drivers and managers within DRS assume that there is no issue themselves.
| cost per journey | 80 |
| journeys per person per year | 12 |
| number of people | 34 |
| total per year | £32,640 |
| years (1995-2026) | 31 |
| Total | £1,011,840 |
Why does there need to be? Unless they are actually preventing non rail-staff from travelling carrying them for free doesn’t cost any more than not carrying them.
Just turn Javascript off in your browser and you get around the Telegraph's paywall. It's not "dodgy tactics."
And yet some TOCs set their barriers to reject other TOCs staff leisure smart cards, so you have to use your duty card to open them when working a train through certain stations!
Which is correct. You do not use your Staff Leisure Card to operate barriers when on duty. One of the basics of staff travel.
Not according to the paperwork (rules) that come with the Duty Pass.
Though if attending a medical they may well be out of uniform, and thus arouse suspicion.
I can't remember what the rules were for TOC staff attending medicals, frankly an appointment letter in conjunction with the duty pass ought to be sufficient.
Quite the reverse in fact.
An old colleague who did a stint for Freightliner Heavy Haul said that they never used to be given diagrams, they'd be told what work they're doing over the phone. Used to cause issues, particularly with XC where there were a few incidents of freight drivers being refused travel and delays being caused. I understand that this led to the introduction of duty passes.
It would be very suspicious if someone were supposedly driving but not in uniform or at least branded clothes yes. Perhaps they were instructed to always wear it. I don't know.
If a duty card for a specific operator is held, it's generally any form of duty travel, including by a member of office based staff who has no operational role. If a duty authority to travel card for any operator is held, generally it's live operational duty only. In practice that means working a train or route refreshing. It's possible that attending a driver school would qualify for this, but attending medicals, meetings, on release for trade union time and so forth wouldn't.
In which case you manually show your diagram & DAT to pass through the gate.
Yes although many people will have one card valid for duty, leisure and residential.
There is no statute of limitations to a criminal prosecution of fraud.
It's triable either way, which means there is no time limit on bringing it to court.
