Freight drivers are allowed to take free passenger journeys, using a so-called Freight Travel Duty Pass, if they are on their way to collect a goods train. They must also carry documentary evidence proving this is the purpose of their trip. Other journeys for work purposes must be paid for, with NTS covering reasonable travel expenses.
Fake duty rosters used
However, some of the 160 drivers – who work for a subsidiary of NTS, Direct Rail Services (DRS) – were supplied with fake duty rosters suggesting they were travelling to pick up a train even when they were not, allowing them to make free journeys illegally.
Whistleblowers have told The Telegraph that the practice was widespread, endorsed by some managers, and went on for decades – potentially cheating taxpayers out of millions of pounds.
You know, dues, traditional, like. It’s not the worst ever Spanish Practice. Probably has a net cost of zero – the marginal cost of the one extra train journey is in fact zero – but still…..
It’s probably racist to call them ‘Spanish practices’ now.
Yeah, but it’s OK while the Spanish are still, roughly, European. Once they are majority Berber/Arab/Subsaharan, it’ll become doubleplus ungood.
If there is some way to fiddle something train drivers can pretty much be guaranteed to find it.
There are two collective nouns I know of for train drivers – a ‘Whinge’ and a ‘Skive’.
A bit of a non story really, but August is renowned for being a slow news month, with all the PMs being on holiday ………….
Exactly.
I thought all people who drove chuff chuffs had free travel anyway
I believe all UK rail company employees get free travel with their companies and heavily discounted on others. Apparently it can extend to spouse and family too.
Duty travel is obviously free. For it not to be would be ridiculous.
A mate is a retired engineer who spent a significant part of his career doing civil engineering for Network Rail. Alongside his pension, he gets an annual pass that entitles him to free UK rail travel (and also in Europe) on a certain number of days (can’t remember how many – ~20 I think). It’s a taxable benefit valued at a few hundred pounds.
I know someone the same, electrical engineer I think. Used to work for Network Rail, now works on HS2. Still has his free rail travel pass, will do for life I believe.
ex British Rail staff are ‘safeguarded’ and keep the perks they had under BR, although a mate who left the railway before privitisation said he has had his number of boxes reduced this year. New staff don’t get the same privileges.
This is one of those KISS things. Find the simple way to do a thing.
Id just give them an unlimited rail card. Make free travel a perk of the job and factor that into the pay.
“Potentially cheating taxpayers out of millions”
Which probably means a few hundred grand of potential fares. Now is it worth building the software, the bureaucracy to verify the roster? Or just cut pay by £1000 a year and let them travel for free on trains everywhere?
People who drive trains every day must be desperate to go on a train in their time off. I wonder how many journeys we are talking about. I also wonder WGAF.
You will find far more train buffs / anoraks / buffer kissers (German version) outside of the railway than in it.
There are a few, but most railway workers want to go to work,
do what they are paid for do as little as possible and go home to watch telly.Whistleblowers have told
Snitches get stitches.
Before everyone slags off the ‘Spanish practices’, they were generally given in lieu of a pay rise. AFAIUI, in 1955, Drivers were given a uniform rather than a pay rise so they then didn’t have to spend their own money on clothes they wore to work (this isn’t the same as buying a suit to wear in the office – your office suit wasn’t covered in oil, grease and diesel at the end of your shift was it……..).
It would be far better to just make the free travel a legitimate part of the job compensation than to chase this.
From the article, last year we paid £12bn to cover the loss-making trains, while “Train ticket evasion costs the government-controlled industry around £240m a year, according to figures cited by Lord Hendy, the rail minister.”. I don’t think our top priority should be worrying about fare evasion.
The top priority is doing Beeching II. Closing down loss making services. These could operate without much subsidy at one time because the commuter lines made a lot of money. Enough to keep the Camberwick Green to Ambridge line running.
Post-Covid, commuter income has fallen quite considerably.
We really never should have subsidised these lines. The railways should have taken the Reading to London money and used it for something useful like health or defence. They’re a huge waste of money, often worse for the environment than putting everyone in a taxi.
The simple thing to do would just be to increase prices based on demand. If it’s £10 for a train, and the subsidy is £20, raise the price to £30. Give those people the opportunity to pay for the railway they want. If they don’t, Stagecoach, National Express or Uber will provide a service.
But people wouldn’t be allowed to pay for the railway they want. They’d be forced to pay for the railway the unions want. The subsidy to “rail” is subsidy to rail unions, some of which gets handed back to the Labour Party.
It wouldn’t be amazingly difficult to make most services wash their faces if sensible rules were in place.
Very much so.
A referendum question perhaps: “Should the Great Western Railway use autonomous driving to increase capacity (two extra seats) and reduce cost to passengers and taxpayers”. It would put the cat among the pigeons. Only passengers and taxpayers get to vote.
It’s not worth it for the cost, and it’s not really the priority. GWR running trains from Reading to London makes a profit. Lots of people want to do it, so it’s full and they’ll gladly pay more money.
What we need to do isn’t complicated, or new technology. It’s getting trains to adopt modern practices.
You need to price trains correctly for starters. Optimise prices to fill trains. Which means more dynamic pricing, scrapping off-peak tickets which are a disaster for load management. And if it doesn’t add up after that, scrap it, put a bus on. Trains are good for speed. But a lot of people don’t care about speed, or even frequency. Retired old ladies in Frome wanting to go shopping in Bath can work with when the transport is.
Get rid of ticket offices, and do it nearly all with apps, and have the backup option of buying a ticket from Mr Singh’s shop down the road, for people who need cash.
This is all proven and easy to do. It’s what National Express do. It’s also why National Express are greener than trains per passenger mile. They fill seats. On average, train utilisation is 33%. On coaches, it’s around 60%. You could just hire someone from National Express and say “do what you do for pricing”. Of course, you’re going to have a fight with the unions, but that is just something that has to be done.
Isn’t off-peak just a crude form of dynamic pricing? You’re always going to want to charge more for rush hour services.
A lot of rural railways are just subsidising wealthy people. That whole area known as the “Chipping Norton set” is really about Charlbury. People didn’t pick it because it’s nice. I mean, it is, but it is also about the train. Straight into London 75 minutes for Ellen DeGeneres or Clarkson to go to a meeting in London or to get to Heathrow for a flight.
It’s £45 return. Make it £150 return, what are Beckham and Clarkson going to do? Fight their way through traffic to meet with some TV production company?
Government should exploit its assets, charge people what they will pay. And that’s the same with the other end of railways: running empty late night trains. Why are these so expensive? Cut the prices. You’re running them anyway back to the start. Make £10 a ticket and fill seats. At £50, a couple are just going to drive it. It’s what aircraft and coaches do, which is often how you get flights to Milan cheaper than a train to Reading. Wizz Air would rather make £5 for a seat than nothing for a seat. Railways are not run by greed pig capitalists so they don’t think like that. Passengers are a nuisance.
And if demand is low, if it can’t add up, use buses. Buses work for smaller volumes, have much lower running costs. It’s what everyone misses about what Beeching (pbuh) said. Close the trains and put buses in their place.
My Grandfather was a Guard for the GWR in the good old days of steam from before the first World War.I remember my mother telling me that he and all his family traveled for free when going to the seaside for their annual holidays..Similarly my Brother in Law was once a bus driver and traveled(as a passenger) to and from the Depot for work for free.
Known to rail workers then as travelling “on the cushions”.
My dad was the manager of a bus company back in the 50s. He had a free pass for travel on his buses, but never used it because he had a car. Then one day his car wouldn’t start and so he caught the bus. However, he forgot his pass, and even though the conductor recognised him, the conductor insisted that he paid! My dad paid happily and a few months later promoted the guy to an inspector.