Earning Commission

[RJ]

I think Virgin TM's get commission on ticket sales - one of my acquaintance used to boast that it paid for his caravan site fee on the Welsh coast. He got very annoyed when his ticket machine broke one morning and he couldn't sell two First Anytime returns Wigan-Euston - about 700 quid!

They do - when I was buying one of my First Class ALRs, I went to Euston and hung around to find the first TM I recognised and got along with to buy it from. Same went for the other time I got one, only I went down to the LM platforms and bought it from an RPI who was delighted. On both occasions, they didn't have a clue how to issue a rover so I did it myself with their Avantix Machines.

I travelled from my outbase in the East Mids to Newcastle the other week. I was buying an FOR for around £400. I'm sure I wouldn't have had any problems buying on board, but given what has happened over the last 13 months, I though better of it and purchased from the station instead.

 

[IanXC]

Last year most staff on XC were actively pointing out that they can sell any tickets for any journey and even renewing season tickets (can they actually do that?). Commission would explain that attitude!

I haven't seen anyone do it recently though, perhaps the commission there has stopped or been lowered to a level where it's not worth their effort?

As recently as September an XC Train Manager offered to renew my North East 7 Day Rover... clearly without really reading what it was!

 

[The Colonel]

I imagine it's subject to income tax?

Correct - appears on your payslip.