Going off topic slightly, but does anyone know what discount (if any) a new Signaller gets off rail travel, and are there any travel benefits available for their other half?
The discount is 75% and I believe you can get a loan for the remaining 25% which is taken from your pay... I'm pretty sure that's how it works
It actually works out about 50% discount due to tax reasons I believe.
As an aside does anyone know if the discount can be used to buy tickets it London that include the travel card element?
The season ticket scheme is administered through Abellio Corporate Travel and is open to all NR employees. You are entitled to 75% off the cost of a single annual season ticket of your choice; the remaining 25% cost is covered by a loan which you repay in installments, spread over 5 or 10 payslips (your choice)
and deducted before tax is calculated, so the overall discount will be more like 85% (depending on your tax code). [Looking again at my payslips, and following High Dyke's excellent post downthread, this bit isn't quite right: the 25% loan is tax free, but the 75% subsidy is a taxable benefit (both income tax & National Insurance contributions), so the effective discount is more like 35-45%, depending on your earnings & tax code.]
Yes, you can select a London travelcard as your season ticket: you still need to input a "home station" for it to be "From", and then you select the destination to be "To: London Zones 1-6" (or however many you choose).
I don't believe partners get any benefit from this nationwide scheme; although...
(a) If you do go for a London Travelcard, then it currently comes as a
paper "Annual Gold Card" (it used to be loaded onto an Oyster); this acts as a railcard offering you an additional 1/3 discount on most rail journeys in the South-east of England, and the discount
does then apply to up to 3 adults travelling with you
(b) If you're lucky enough to be employed on the Wessex Route - where SWR extend their free staff travel passes to the local NR staff as well - that scheme
does apply to partners as well