I'm a little confused. When I was at XJT they positive spaced me to an from my interview, initial, and recurrent training that was in IAH. I live in SoCal. Now, when there was a recurrent ground school at your current base, you had to get there on your own, but jump seating was available. For instance I commuted to EWR and if a class was held there it was up to me to be in base for the start of class. Is this what you are describing above? I'm guessing for your sim training they positive space you to the training center?
Also at my current part 91 job, it's absolutely up to the company to get us to and from recurrent and cover all meals and hotels while there. We'll save the boss cash in other ways, like fuel prices, landing fees etc, but that's our job. I can see if a company was hiring locals only and you talked them into an interview, I don't think it would be out of the question to pay your own way to interview. However, if I'm based in LGB and the only choices in training are TUS, ICT or DAL, that's an expanse the company pays.