Feel like a mug paying for buses in Wales

I got 5 buses in South Manchester last week and total was £4. It’s capped at £5, but you can changes buses within a hour with a £2 ticket and I managed 3 buses in an hour.

I wouldn’t be it’s ending soon.

also I’d prefer the free prescriptions. Needed 4 this month so that costed me just under £40 🤮

I have one of the disabled bus passes,due to losing my license after brain surgery,Glad you’re angry about it,I’d swap with you and be able to drive.
i still have to pay bus fare if I travel before 9.30am.

Don't come to Scotland the under 22s also get free bus travel it would blow your mind!

Ooh that's expensive OP. I'm SE England and its £3 a journey, £21 a week or £73 a month. How much is your monthly ticket? Even if its expensive it might be cheaper than daily. £73 a month works out half price for me and weekends of I need buses then.

@AnonymousemousesIn Gtr Manchester the single ticket can be used for more than one trip (ie changing buses at a stop) within an hour of ticket purchase. It may be the same in your area, and might suit your schedule 🤞

Read this post and the post above it to see two completely contradictory arguments.

Either it's only the poor and infirm that are using the bus passes anyway so it's be default means tested

Or

The bus passes are being used by car owning pensioners that would otherwise have been clogging up the roads

You can't really have it both ways.

I have one - I don't really need it as I rarely use buses as where I live there is such a poor and unreliable service that I will pay and use the train (although I do get reduced fare on that as well). And I like the convenience of not having to find somewhere to park and the new town new parking app problem
I think it is a good way of getting older and sicker people to drive less (plus some exercise getting to the bus stop).
Plus gives me the freedom to read and people watch.

I only use the bus because it's free, as do many of my pensioner neighbours and friends. It's certainly not for convenience (half hourly service in the mornings and hourly in the afternoons because it becomes a school bus, last bus at 5.45 and none on Sundays).

If I had to pay, it would be far cheaper to use the car for the 2.5 mile journey into town, and it's definitely more convenient. But that would mean a lot more traffic on the roads of our congested town centre and even more pressure on parking.

And if we all stopped using the bus, they'd probably stop running it. Then those who can't afford a car or who don't drive would be really stuffed.

Bus pass use is highest amongst pensioners least likely to have a car, who are more likely to be infirm/ senile or on a low income.

Wealthier and younger pensioners have cars, and either don't use their business pass or rarely use them.

So, the system means tests itself- for free! But, yeah, let's set-up a means testing system and employ people to run it, because of people's perceptions and prejudices against the elderly.

Makes sense.

Sounds like the problem is the price being too expensive for those who do pay!

There was a thread recently about this that ran to many pages, and it just made me think in the end that free bus travel should be either universal. For the sake of the environment if nothing else, as people who could easily drive were describing making the decision to use the bus because they got their free travel on retirement.

Yes, but your post only makes sense if you think pensioners are somehow more likely to be poorer than everyone else. So you are saying that OP's grandparents are the exception and not the rule. The reality is though that pensioners are now one of the richest groups in society.

Except it costs £9 here (South Wales) for a return ticket to the nearest chemist so....

What a silly thread. Of course it's not the case that no-one is paying! Are you assuming everyone in your town (people who don't have a 'pass' and people who pay,) are all on the bus at the same time as you? 🙄 NEWSFLASH! Lots of people will use the bus when you're not there/not on the bus! 😱

I live where there are no buses. Nearest bus stop is three miles away. I shall be entitled to a bus pass soon, but as I would have to drive to the bus stop in order to use it, I think I shall probably not claim it at all.

I would just be glad you still have public transport. Pensioners around me can't leave their villages if they give up driving.

Public transport in the UK is shocking. But I am thanking my lucky stars that I'm Welsh when it comes to prescriptions, and now that I have a DC going to uni. It would have been very difficult financially if we were from England and wanting a uni degree- I really feel for English parents.

£1.75 a bus journey in London ,can’t remember what the daily cap is

I’m £96 per week to commute.

I fully agree that bus passes should be means tested.

Put all the money you save with your free prescriptions, towards your bus fare. Sorted 😄

My point is that OP is asserting that, because her grandparents are well off and well provided for, all older people must be too. They are not, was my point. I'm well aware of the levels of poverty in this country and their spread, thank you, having been there myself.

I’m in England and a day bus pass is £6 here or £26 for the week - so not a million miles away from what you pay.

Also I’m supportive of all pensioners getting a bus pass if it encourages them to drive less, or at least have an option when they don’t feel up to driving - there are too many people still behind the wheel when their driving abilities are sub par.

Guess you didn't know that Scotland has higher income tax either.

That may be so, statistically, but unfortunately those "seniors" (are you American?) don't tend to club together and share that wealth equally.

The one I don't understand is why I can't use mine on 'ring and ride'.

I've got a free bus pass. Too disabled to use it. Looked at it the other day and saw it expired 3 years ago. I expect the same applies to many of us ageing freeloading pensioners.