Under my employer’s policy I can do first class for journies of over an hour (which is all of them) but I’ve stopped doing it since it basically became £400 more from my local station to Cambridge often getting absolutely nothing but a different seat to sit in. The trains in the country are totally and utterly fvcked.
I didn't say fatcat and I am absolutely of the view that senior civil servants should travel by first class train (and business class for long haul flights).
Hair shirts are stupid and counterproductive. You want people to look and feel valued and not turn up to meetings knackered and p1ssed off where possible.
Most big organisations tend to have blanket polices around class of travel rather than looking at the cost of particular journeys.
Funny thing is, I just had a barney with some external solicitors over this!
Their T&C's say Partners, of Counsel and Senior Associates travel first class with the statement "this enables them to work on the train.
Fast forward and February we have a dialogue meeting 4 hours by train. On the return journey the Partner clocks up travel and the next day charges for doing the minutes of the meeting and some emails allocating tasks, the was 4 hours.
I refused to pay both periods of time, I'm not paying for them to travel first class and work efficiently on some other clients matter.
They have agreed they should have done the work on the train or not charged separately.
If you want a lawyer to be at a certain place then you have to pay their travel time
Otherwise do it on Teams or whatever
Working on a train is quite difficult really, particularly given WiFi is terrible and there isn't always mobile signal for hotspotting. Id rather travel standard class and watch a film and relax, but we are allowed to travel first as partners
My shop has a policy for junior staff of not paying first class but will pay a standard open return. So we can all book advance first and they gladly pay it. I think the more senior people can get first (or used to).
If I were in charge of rail fares this sort of nonsense would be banned pronto. Almost no one - on expenses or not - is going to pay these insane first class fares. I was quoted over a grand to go to/from Lakes from London in first class for 1 adult and 2 kids with a railcard. No one is going to pay that - if you could afford to you're going to be in a chauffered car/helicopter/whatever.
you're forgetting, you pay that huge premium, get on the train and all the services onboard are cancelled due to staff shortages. Might as well have stuck with cattle class.
Almost no one - on expenses or not - is going to pay these insane first class fares.
Remember (and I can only speak for Avanti) they’ve replaced most of the First carriages with Premium Plus or whatever it’s called, so there’s only one or two first carriages, and every time I’ve been on them they’re full so people clearly are.
My second leg is from KX to Cambridge and the “Great” Northern First is literally the same as the others but with a Father Ted Doylee (sp?) over the headrest. You’d genuinely have to be mentally ill to pay for First on that journey alone.
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That’s mental. Wasn’t there a doc about the ridiculous train costs?
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Looks perfectly reasonable considering a change of horses is included
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The sausage roll is also worse than a Greggs one
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This price btw includes a rail card
Feeling quite stressed about the insanity of pricing
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Is seatfrog a thing on this route ? That's the only way I pay to go 1st.
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Guilty as charged.
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People who aren’t paying for it.
Under my employer’s policy I can do first class for journies of over an hour (which is all of them) but I’ve stopped doing it since it basically became £400 more from my local station to Cambridge often getting absolutely nothing but a different seat to sit in. The trains in the country are totally and utterly fvcked.
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What the face dude said. It's all people on expenses. Mainly, I suspect people working for the government .
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I don't know many employers who would pay for this (not many sheikhs to visit at Haymarket)
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I actually wonder how many firms just write a blank cheque for travel because I've never worked at such a place.
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Yeah. I think it's all fat cat civil servants, a view which I'm happy to spout with zero evidence to back it up.
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Government hasn't been able to go first class since Osborne days when it was cheap
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I didn't say fatcat and I am absolutely of the view that senior civil servants should travel by first class train (and business class for long haul flights).
Hair shirts are stupid and counterproductive. You want people to look and feel valued and not turn up to meetings knackered and p1ssed off where possible.
Most big organisations tend to have blanket polices around class of travel rather than looking at the cost of particular journeys.
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High Guise15 Apr 24 05:50
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Guilty as charged.
Not sure if you've read the indictment. It says "being an irrelevant monotonous prick".
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counter intuitively if the policy says no first class it basically hands you a reasonable excuse not to work while travelling :)
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it ought to be gross misconduct to work while travelling anyway for a lot of tasks but this is adhered to in varying degrees
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Funny thing is, I just had a barney with some external solicitors over this!
Their T&C's say Partners, of Counsel and Senior Associates travel first class with the statement "this enables them to work on the train.
Fast forward and February we have a dialogue meeting 4 hours by train. On the return journey the Partner clocks up travel and the next day charges for doing the minutes of the meeting and some emails allocating tasks, the was 4 hours.
I refused to pay both periods of time, I'm not paying for them to travel first class and work efficiently on some other clients matter.
They have agreed they should have done the work on the train or not charged separately.
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Are they in fact bright enough to so your work?
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*do
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Looks like 1st class upgrade is about £30 each way on direct services on that route (picked 11.10 tomorrow as example).
Surely worth that just for the free scran ?
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where do you live that a godawful vegan sausage roll and a begrudgingly poured pepsi max is worth £30?
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(It is vanishingly rare for an upgrade to be that cheap_
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I thought LNER first includes actual proper food ?
https://www.lner.co.uk/the-east-coast-experience/first-class/menu/
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If you want a lawyer to be at a certain place then you have to pay their travel time
Otherwise do it on Teams or whatever
Working on a train is quite difficult really, particularly given WiFi is terrible and there isn't always mobile signal for hotspotting. Id rather travel standard class and watch a film and relax, but we are allowed to travel first as partners
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30 quid for an upgrade or spend 30 quid on cans, m&s snacks and chocolate
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My shop has a policy for junior staff of not paying first class but will pay a standard open return. So we can all book advance first and they gladly pay it. I think the more senior people can get first (or used to).
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If I were in charge of rail fares this sort of nonsense would be banned pronto. Almost no one - on expenses or not - is going to pay these insane first class fares. I was quoted over a grand to go to/from Lakes from London in first class for 1 adult and 2 kids with a railcard. No one is going to pay that - if you could afford to you're going to be in a chauffered car/helicopter/whatever.
The impression they leave is dreadful.
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you're forgetting, you pay that huge premium, get on the train and all the services onboard are cancelled due to staff shortages. Might as well have stuck with cattle class.
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Remember (and I can only speak for Avanti) they’ve replaced most of the First carriages with Premium Plus or whatever it’s called, so there’s only one or two first carriages, and every time I’ve been on them they’re full so people clearly are.
My second leg is from KX to Cambridge and the “Great” Northern First is literally the same as the others but with a Father Ted Doylee (sp?) over the headrest. You’d genuinely have to be mentally ill to pay for First on that journey alone.
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