TRANSPORT for Greater Manchester ­— which is introducing a new £10 charge for pensioners ­— spent more than £300,000 on providing free public transport for their workers.

A freedom of information request revealed all 833 ­employees ­— regardless of position or pay ­— are entitled to a bus pass and can choose either a rail pass or a tram pass allowing them free travel.

The cost of this travel for the financial year 2018/2019 was £326,793.20.

The figure obtained by The Bolton News comes as TfGM introduce a charge for pensioners using the tram and trains, which they had previously been able to travel on for free.

READ MORE: Rail fares rise again today — here's how much extra you will have to pay

From February 1, people will need to pay the fee once a year to add other modes of transport to their pension-age or women’s concessionary pass.

Currently, the passes allow free off-peak travel for buses across England and for trams and trains across Greater Manchester.

There will be no change to free, off-peak bus travel and, if pensioners use buses, and they can choose not to pay to add tram and train.

TfGM say they expect all staff to use public transport where possible for commuting and business travel so "that employees have real time knowledge of the network which informs how we work".

Cllr Sean Hornby said that people are expected to pay to get to work with Bolton West MP Chris Green saying that TfGM should have looked to their own coffers rather than targeting pensioners.

Cllr Hornby said: "I have to pay to travel to work, other people have to pay to travel to work. Free transport should not be provided to get to work, people, when they take on a job, know how it much it will cost to get there.

"Pensioners should not be charged £10, they have contributed enough. I have a lot of elderly constituents and they are not happy about it. This comes as the free TV licence is taken away."

Mr Green said: "I think the whole thing is appalling, I believe, that pensioners, should not be handing over part of their pension when actually the money could have come from TfGM."

He added he hoped workers there had a decent level of income.

"Pensioners have a fixed income and now they have an added charge for travel which they used to get for free. £10 in the first year may not seem a lot but if there is an increase in year two, there, four, then they will begin to feel the pinch. It is also the level of bureaucracy that has been added. Some pensioners are not online."

A spokesperson for TfGM said: “Similar to other transport authorities, our staff are entitled to free travel as an employee benefit and we expect all staff to travel sustainably where possible for commuting and business travel.

“We encourage our staff to use public transport so that they have a good knowledge of the transport network to help them provide an excellent service to the travelling public.”