Who can benefit from free travel to work?
If you travel to work by rail every day, you can benefit from very cheap fares thanks to the Railcard. In addition, your employer will be responsible for most of the cost of your railcard (known as the employer's legal contribution).
Your employer can ensure that you get free rail transport to work! To that end your employer enters into a contract with SNCB/NMBS stipulating that he pays 80% of your Railcard. The Government then looks after the remaining 20%. (This percentage only relates to the cost of the STIB transport and the SNCB/NMBS journey in 2nd class).
No State subsidy is planned for TEC or De Lijn travel - combined with a railcard - and for price differences between 1st and 2nd class. However, employers may decide to pay for this part as well.
Third Party Paying contract with SNCB/NMBS
The way it works is that you pay the full price of your Railcard at the ticket office and your employer then refunds the employer's contribution to you.
However, for some years, employers have been able to enter into third party pays contracts with SNCB/NMBS which enable them to pay SNCB/NMBS directly. This means you only pay your personal share at the ticket office.
This new measure means that your railcard will be virtually free of charge if the 3 conditions listed above are all met.