Priv facilities for new entrants

[CaptainHaddock]

I'm not sure whether this belongs in fares or jobs so will leave the mods to decide.

I know that UK-wide priv travel is only open to safeguarded staff who joined BR pre privatisation, but what do new entrants to TOCs get these days?

I presume that you would just get free travel on your own TOC's services, but does this vary from one TOC to the next?

Reason I ask is that I'm thinking of applying for a job with a TOC and if successful I'd be commuting using their services. If it's free then great, but if not an annual season ticket would cost me over £3,000, meaning I wouldn't be able to afford to do the job!

 

[Aictos]

I'm not sure whether this belongs in fares or jobs so will leave the mods to decide.

I know that UK-wide priv travel is only open to safeguarded staff who joined BR pre privatisation, but what do new entrants to TOCs get these days?

I presume that you would just get free travel on your own TOC's services, but does this vary from one TOC to the next?

Reason I ask is that I'm thinking of applying for a job with a TOC and if successful I'd be commuting using their services. If it's free then great, but if not an annual season ticket would cost me over £3,000, meaning I wouldn't be able to afford to do the job!

TOCNE staff usually get free travel with their employing TOC and 75% priv discount on all other TOCs within the UK.

There are also many arrangements between sister companies ie a FSR employee can travel using First boxes on First services for free.

FCC and East Coast have a arrangement which means a FCC employee could head to Inverness on the Saturday and come back via Aberdeen on the Sunday, same as East Coast staff can travel anywhere with FCC on the weekends.

Best advice is to Google ATOC and TOCNE for a PDF explaining what you are entitled to.

 

[scrapy]

Is there is an arrangement for free travel between Greater Anglia and Northern/Merseyrail staff following Abellio's take over of the Anglia franchise?

 

[cookiescrumble]

As a new entrant you should get free travel with the TOC that you work for and possibly for any sister companies aswell. I've just started working for SWT and I get free travel on SWT and EMT services (both run by stagecoach).

After a month, you'll get a priv pass that you can use for 75% off standard fares on other TOC's for leisure use.

 

[driver9000]

Is there is an arrangement for free travel between Greater Anglia and Northern/Merseyrail staff following Abellio's take over of the Anglia franchise?

No. This may change in the future and was mentioned on GA preview websites staff FAQs section. Greater Anglia stated that because they are solely owned by Abellio and Northern/Merseyrail are joint ventures with Serco reciprocal free travel couldn't be granted automatically.

 

[RPM]

I don't know of any TOC that charges their own employees for travel to and from work on their own services so I don't think you need to worry about that.

Most TOC owning groups extend the free travel cover all the TOCs they run. Some restrict it by issuing boxes, others don't. National Express used to issue boxes and I gather First do too. Govia allow unrestricted free travel (London Midland/Southern/Southeastern) as do DB Arriva (Arriva Trains Wales/Chiltern/Crosscountry/LOROL).

Usually the free travel is for duty and leisure travel for the employee and for leisure travel only for partners and dependents, so officially they can't use it to commute to work/college/school.

The 75% priv travel discount is useful on shorter journeys but you will find for long distance travel it is often cheaper to book an oridinary Advance ticket. This is because you get the priv discount on the standard open fare, which are often set very high these days. I do hope one day they will amend it so you get 75% off the cheapest available walk-on fare.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Is there is an arrangement for free travel between Greater Anglia and Northern/Merseyrail staff following Abellio's take over of the Anglia franchise?

Northern employees have free travel on Northern, Merseyrail and Tyne and Wear Metro services. There is also a deal with Grand Central which, last I heard, runs out in March, they may extend it though.

 

[1D53]

The Northern Grand Central agreement was an initial one year trial - hopefully to be extended.

 

[222007]

Northern employees have free travel on Northern, Merseyrail and Tyne and Wear Metro services. There is also a deal with Grand Central which, last I heard, runs out in March, they may extend it though.

As a XC member of staff we dont even get free travel on the tyne and wear however we do on other TOC's. it was said the T&W couldnt be granted as its a special case. As for Grand Central i would imagine that won't continue however i am happy to be corrected.

 

[1D53]

Why wouldn't it be? Northern still provide maintenance facilities to Grand Central and Grand Central still make use of Northern services for duty travel e.g. Bradford to York.

 

[222007]

1D53 just my opinion if its a duty agreement then possibly it will continue.

 

[185]

Free travel on your own company, at your company's discretion.

Free travel on your company's sister companies, at your companies discretion.

75% Priv card, all staff get this. Also good for many heritage railways, Windemere boats and several international ferries.

FIP Card (Europe) after 1 years service (all staff) - half fare (or quarter fare in France, Belgium, N. & S. Ireland) on most services across Europe.

FIP Card is also good for special fares on Eurostar, about £26 single 2nd class or £39 single First Class (includes food)

FIP Coupons (Europe) after 1 years service (all staff) - 8 days free travel per each country once a year. Apply 8 weeks before travelling.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

As a XC member of staff we dont even get free travel on the tyne and wear however we do on other TOC's. it was said the T&W couldnt be granted as its a special case. As for Grand Central i would imagine that won't continue however i am happy to be corrected.

The Grand Central thing works both ways, GC staff get free travel on Northern services, so I'd suggest GC might be more than willing to extend it.

 

[RPM]

As a XC member of staff we dont even get free travel on the tyne and wear however we do on other TOC's. it was said the T&W couldnt be granted as its a special case. As for Grand Central i would imagine that won't continue however i am happy to be corrected.

Now I understood (from a Chiltern point of view) that we do get free travel on the T&W Metro, even though it is not explicitly stated in the new DB Arriva staff arrangements. Maybe this is wrong, or perhaps it is an arrangement that applies to the former DB Regio UK companies (Chiltern/LOROL), but has not yet been extended to ATW and Cross Country?

On a related note, Grand Central is an interesting one. Recenty purchased by DB Arriva, but absolutely no mention of it in the new DB Arriva staff travel arrangements?!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I don't know of any TOC that charges their own employees for travel to and from work on their own services so I don't think you need to worry about that.

.

Thanks for all the contributions so far but with reference to the point above, the job is based in Manchester working for TPE and I'd be commuting from Sheffield. Now obviously if TPE give free travel on their services I can commute for free, but of course East Midlands Trains and Northern also operate Sheffield-Manchester services. I'm guessing therefore that if I wanted to use non-TPE services to commute, I would need to buy a priv season ticket at 25% of the public cost.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Officially, yes, you would.

 

[185]

Commuting such a distance is in my view, unwise, where shift work is concerned.

Plenty of cheap decent accomodation in Manchester. `

 

[Aictos]

Commuting such a distance is in my view, unwise, where shift work is concerned.

Plenty of cheap decent accomodation in Manchester. '

I have to commute a similar distance so am contend to be on permanent lates of 2pm to 9pm.

That said, I have a choice of either 30 minutes or 50 minutes commuting by train, usually prefer the quicker option.

 

[AlterEgo]

I commute 50-55 minutes each way on my own TOC's trains. I work occasional shifts, but never nights.

I'm not sure I'd like nearly two hours of travelling if I was doing a night shift. It might mess with your body clock.

 

[scrapy]

You would get free travel on TPE. TPE and Northern have an agreement whereby you can get a free pass for residential travel only on the other if they operate on the route between your home and place of work. Although there is no real benefit as most Northern services leave Sheffield just after the TPE and arrive back in Sheffield just before it.

For EMT you would have to buy a Priv season.

If you are taing a safety critical job be aware that most TOCs require you to live within a certain travel time of your depot (usually either 30 min or an hour) as otherwise you can become fatigued. Northern services take over an hour and if you take TPE services they are 51 minutes so you realistically need to live within 5 minutes of the station for your commute to be less than an hour. Also be aware if services are disrupted your TOC will be unlikely to take this as an excuse more than a couple of times to be late for work so you should have a back-up plan.