10th October, 2013 Public transport employees’ ticket privileges Tamás Dombi ZTM Warsaw

10th October, 2013EMTA General Meeting, Vienna Background  In Warsaw (and in most former communistic countries) public transport employees and their families could travel for free  Those „historic rights” evolved with the time and now it is a real caleidoscope  In the era of crisis, all fare privileges are precisely examined  There was a need for information about European practice – hard to gather from Internet  20 answers arrived – a really good result – THANK YOU!

Situation of Warsaw  In Warsaw, historically all employees of the Public Transport Enterprise had a ticket to free ride together with their families  Currently there are different regulations depending from the employer  Overall there are people entitled to free ride, of whom are employees and the rest is spouses, children, retired etc.  The lost income is appr. at 3,5 mln PLN 10th October, 2013EMTA General Meeting, Vienna

Situation at EMTA members  14 of 21 authorities let their employees travel for free. The rest: only during work (Turin), only some employees (Budapest), for a contribution (Lyon), or not at all (Barcelona, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Vilnius)  In some cases, employees need to cover personal income tax because free ride counts as a benefit (this issue was examined in Warsaw, too)  Some authorities have to pay for the free ride of their employees (Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Sheffield)  Only 3 authorities give benefits for families (London, Valencia, Warsaw), Lyon and Sheffield give discount 10th October, 2013EMTA General Meeting, Vienna

Situation of operators  More operators than authorities have free ride benefits – probably a historic issue  Only Vilnius has a „heavy no free-ride” policy  With the diversification of the operators, many of the new ones do not offer free ride tickets and do not accept those of other operators  More family benefits, especially at railway operators, but it’s really a patchwork: 12 answers report certain benefits, 4 answers „rather not” and 5 report about no benefits at all 10th October, 2013EMTA General Meeting, Vienna

Conclusions  Free ride benefits are a historic right of public transport employees and their families  Taken over by authorities, but without the rights for family members  Recently, historic rights are taken away or treated as other benefits and being taxed  In Warsaw, after a hot discussion, free ride for employees and their families will end with March 2014 (?) 10th October, 2013EMTA General Meeting, Vienna

10th October, 2013 Thank you! Questions? Tamás Dombi ZTM Warsaw