Tunnel fair row as staff go free

Jun 26 2008 By Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

MERSEYTRAVEL was last night condemned for giving away around £1m free travel to its employees while refusing to make concessions for tunnel users.

The local passenger transport authority confirmed it provides around 700 of its 970 staff with all- zone "Trio" tickets which allows them free use of all buses, trains and ferries in the region – worth more than £1,000 a year.

Their permanent partners are also provided with off- peak tickets worth more than £300 a year.

An all-zone Trio ticket would cost £1,005 per year, while an off-peak ticket would cost £343.

For tunnel staff, who are not counted as working on the public transport network and therefore do not qualify for the Trio tickets, around 300 employees are given 50 free trips through the tunnel a year, worth some £21,000 a year in total.

Last night, Wirral’s deputy Conservative leader Lesley Rennie said Merseytravel was not providing a "level playing field".

Cllr Rennie, a member of the fire authority, said she would again be pushing for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to increase the pressure on Merseytravel to offer concessions to emergency services.

She said: "I would never want the employees of Merseytravel to be penalised, or anything taken away from those workers.

"But if Merseytravel can allow these concessions for their own staff, then I don’t see why they can’t do the same for emergency services – it seems a complete nonsense that, for example, a fire engine returning to Wirral from a 999 call in Liverpool has to pay a tunnel toll."

A week ago, the Daily Post revealed that emergency services paid more than £60,000 last year in tunnel tolls.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that fire and ambulance services paid tens thousands to go back and forth between Wirral and Liverpool.

Merseyside ambulance drivers and staff on official business were paid around £38,000 between April, 2007, and March, 2008, in tunnel toll expenses.

Merseyside Fire Service personnel were paid more than £24,000 in the same period for travelling through the tunnel.

A spokesman for Merseytravel said the free travel was widely offered by transport organisations across the country and had the advantage of encouraging its employees to use public transport and also provide useful feedback on buses, trains and ferries. He said: "Our staff are the eyes and ears of the organisation, and interesting things have come back from that.

"It’s a useful corporate asset to have our people using it."

The spokesman said Merseytravel employees use public transport for getting to meetings, and Merseytravel remained an advocate of public transport.

The free travel tickets are offered as part of Merseytravel employees’ terms and conditions.

Last week, a Merseytravel spokesman said: "Emergency service vehicles travelling on a blue light are not required to stop and pay tolls, and are given every assistance through the tunnels as safely and quickly as possible.

"For routine use of the tunnels, the charges apply like they would for any other business in Merseyside."

liammurphy@dailypost.co.uk