We received this email in Feb this year. Meant my girlfriend got priv travel after only cohabiting for 9 months.
Dear All
I am very pleased to let you know of a change to the Rail Staff Travel Facility Rules, which has been agreed by the TOCs and further authorised by the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland.
The 2-year qualifying rule for non-married couples has been abolished, bringing them into line with married couples.
Within the Rules, the specific phrase:
subject to a statutory declaration being made that the couple are cohabiting and that a meaningful relationship has existed for a period of 2 years or more. All facilities granted for any previous spouse/partner must have been surrendered and withdrawn for at least 2 years.
now reads:
subject to a statutory declaration being made that the couple are cohabiting and that a meaningful relationship exists. All facilities granted for any previous spouse/partner must have been surrendered and withdrawn.
Just as for married couples, all cards and passes for a previous partner cannot also still be in circulation, but must be surrendered or have expired before passes can be requested, or issued, for a new partner.
For the avoidance of doubt, however, this change is not intended to allow facilities for those in casual relationships. Couples still need to provide bona fide proof of their eligibility, ie their cohabiting status at a shared address, and items which can be very easily obtained (such as store cards, mobile phones) or manually changed (such as passports) are not acceptable as address proofs. Additionally, the declaration sworn in front of a solicitor or commissioner for oaths also requires that person to be satisfied as to the evidence of eligibility. Any applications which do not fulfil the criteria will be rejected.
The Statutory Declaration (form 90010) has been strengthened to accommodate the change.
The Conditions of Issue and Use for staff travel facilities online (at
www.atoc.org/rst) have been revised.
This change comes into effect immediately, and applies equally to safeguarded and non-safeguarded staff.