TRANSPORT for Greater Manchester 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 Oldham Times comes as TfGM, a largely taxpayer funded authority, introduce a charge for pensioners using the tram and trains, which they had previously been able to travel on for free.

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".

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.”