Staff benefits lost with nationalisation

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Railway World

Spare a thought for those of us who will this weekend (25 May 2025) lose a major rail travel benefit as a result of South Western Railway (SWR^» (South Western Railway - about)) becoming the first rail operator to be nationalised by the Labour Government.

Over the past five years a major benefit for me of working part-time for a FirstGroup company has been an annual allocation of cheap day rover tickets that are valid on any of the First rail operations and, importantly for me, SWR.

But the change of ownership at SWR means losing that valuable perk that comes with role as a Rail Replacement Coordinator, although it will continue to be available on First’s two other franchises, GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and Avanti, until they too are taken into the public sector.

Not so lucky are the many thousands of SWR staff, who will lose their entitlement to all of these Rover tickets as they have now become part of the public sector, and are no longer be employees of FirstGroup.

[snip]

After five years, I will bitterly miss the SWR Rovers that allowed me to begin longer distance trips with a cheap early morning journey to Waterloo, and it seems all the more regrettable when I realise that I will be back working for SWR next weekend (31 May 2025) on bus replacement duty!

[ChrisB]

My understanding is that SWT^▸ (South West Trains)(R) staff retain benefits over SWT metals but have lost them over First Group metals.

The DfTO TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) have agreed a replacement arrangement over their routes, but of course needs DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) agreement. They are still waiting…