London parents, did you know about public transport changes?

Has it been announced at what age children will have to start paying? 5, 11 etc?

Apparently the ins and outs of this haven't been finalised, according to one of the local news sites I found on the BBC News site. You can find it by going to the London part of the website and scrolling down. I'll try to post the link:

www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/18485227.cutting-free-travel-kids-cost-london-councils-10m/?ref=rss

@ListeningQuietly for me it’s more the fact that they haven’t actually announced this!
My 16 yr old has been wanting to get a job, if he’d gone out to get the bus to an interview, he wouldn’t have been able to get on because they don’t let you pay with cash and we wouldn’t have sorted him out with an Oyster card because without me reading this thread we wouldn’t have had a clue this was happening!

cake
Central government gives out money for OAPs
it does not for anybody else.
London buses were never deregulated
its not about priority, its about the whole structure

In my city we have 6 bus companies, none of whom recognise each others' tickets and the fares are all different

Imagine getting on the 54 and your season ticket not working on the 73
welcome to our world

buses stop at 9pm even in towns
the cheap bus ends earlier than the expensive one

Wen Maggie deregulated buses, London was exempt.

But I would still like to know if the county has prioritised free travel for older citizens above free travel for children. Just nosiness.

cake
In most of the country buses have been cut to the bone
when a village has three buses a week
or the one daily bus that serves students is cut half way through a term
and buses stop at 6pm even in towns

sympathy for Londoners is likely to be ... NIL

I don't think that it is acceptable for school children to be charged bus fares anywhere in the country for reasons of choice as I have specified above, but this thread is specifically about London. Out of interest and not wanting to derail the thread though I would like to know if other areas are still giving free train,bus etc travel to the over 60s but not to children?

@listeningquietly no one is saying it is fair for you to have to do that. £9 return is a disgraceful fare and I don't think anyone should have to pay to get their kids on a bus to school. The fact this happens up and down the country is shameful.
Just because you have it bad, doesn't mean everyone should. Sorry but this is a horrible mentality to have.

London - welcome to the real world

its what the rest of the country has always had
but our bus fare are MUCH HIGHER than yours think £9 return for a 4 mile each way journey
AND
our bus tickets are not transferrable between routes

sorry but I have zero sympathy for Londoners who have been cosseted from this shitty Tory policy for decades

I paid over £1000 a year for my kids to get school

Sorry for being stupid: are the proposed changes for children of all ages or those over a certain age?

I didn’t know this at all.
Is this in force now? How are we meant to know about it? Surely they’d need loaded Oyster cards to get on?
Is it adult fare or cheaper?
TFL are emailing me every bloody day to tell me to avoid getting the bus unless I’m a key worker but they can’t email to tell people this?!

In the real world we pay £18 a week for our kids to get to school, it's reasonable that Londoners do the same!

Well they did!

Children in London normally get free bus rides?

Gosh, I didn’t know that.

I’m glad I read this. I didn’t know. How annoying. What with that and the C charge going up, it’s going to be ridiculous. And Sunday’s as well. I’m so annoyed.

Some not many. I agree it should be something you apply for, not just get handed. Either way, public transport is expensive and rubbish in London. I don’t care what he wants - I’m not getting on a bloody bike.

But many are which is why freebies should be means tested.

London is a very large city. We aren’t all paid a fortune.

DH earns considerably more than 200k and he will still be entitled to a Freedom Pass in 18 months time whilst 11 year olds will be paying to use the tubes and trains even if the free bus rides are re-instated.

Old people vote which is why Khan will be happier to start charging children for buses than change the qualifying age for the Freedom Pass which would be a lot fairer. He should be forced to consider that it is city based professionals who benefit most from this perk, buying only a single fare in the morning rush hour if necessary and travelling free for the rest of the week. In addition to an older age start, probably 65/67, the sensible thing would have been to make the Freedom Pass only applicable for bus journeys like the children pass. This would give pensioners taking a bus to the shops free travel but would remove a tax free commuter travel perk for those about to retire who are usully the wealthiest age group.

Plus getting on the bus is often much safer than walking even short distances sometimes for various different reasons.

Lot's of my dcs classmates use the tram well in south London - also free and a vital link between areas with no other transport.

@lordfrontpaw yup! This happens very often in London. People out of London assume because there's so many schools you just go to your nearest. This is not the case. Kids who can walk to school are the privileged few, in London and elsewhere.

@missionalmostimpossible it's ridiculous isn't it. How can working age people have their travel paid for, arguably at the point of their lives when they're earning the most

They should move the Freedom Pass age to 65 to pay for children to travel for free. 3 of the Directors at one listed company I know of are aged 60-65, and all have Freedom Passes. They each earn over £200k per year.

If they can't afford it, make it an affordable fare. There is currently no explanation as to how much these kids are going to be paying. It seems absurd that 60+ year olds can get on every part of Tfl for free, but they can't afford to keep buses accessible for kids. I reiterate that's it's just buses, the term transport is being thrown around implying they can use the whole system. Most teenagers can't afford the tube or train.