Free Remembrance weekend travel for families of fallen armed forces

Families will be able to nominate one next of kin to travel for free on National Rail services to attend events between November 7 and 8 this year and beyond.

Veterans minister Calvin Bailey said support for the families of those who have “given everything for their country” should be “a given”.

Mr Bailey – a former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan – would not say how much money had been set aside for the scheme, but insisted no eligible family members will be turned down.

Speaking at the Cenotaph in central London, he said: “The scheme’s been costed, it’s funded, and it will be continued beyond this year.

“We think this is an essential part of of commemoration. It’s something that I feel perhaps should have just been a given, and I hope it because this shouldn’t be a discussion point.

“This should have been something that we have been doing for a long time. When people give everything for their country, we should give them ensure that their families are able to feel as though they’re part of that connective tissue.”

He continued: “Coming here is a significant event, but coming here can come at great personal expense.

“It’s an emotionally difficult period for those people that have lost someone, but it’s a very significant thing to be at the heart of our national commemorations, and as we’ve heard from those members of bereaved families today, being here in any number helps them to ensure that connection remains.

“This is a small but very significant lifting of the barriers of cost of living and the challenges that people have either with distance or with cost to ensure that they’re part of these commemorations.”

The scheme will build on the Government’s existing free travel offer for serving personnel and veterans.

Mr Bailey said he had asked the Department for Transport to make sure there are no “unnecessary impediments” over the Remembrance Day weekend caused by train delays or cancellations.

Mikki Brett, the widow of the late CPO Stuart Brett – who served in the Weapons Engineering branch of the Royal Navy and died in service in April 2023, said: “It’s fantastic news that the in-service bereaved have been recognised for the support given to their loved ones with free train fares to remembrance events this year.”