Everyone in the UK that is 60+ should get free local train and bus travel at any time

[magapiemag]

Why is it just people in London that get this? Everyone 60+ should get this to make it a fair system. Plenty are 60+ and not retired so still work and free bus and train travel would be a very welcomed. Is this more of London creaming the goodies for its self and letting the rest of the country with a inferior service?

Everyone over 60 in Scotland is entitled to a bus pass regardless of income or whether they still work.

One of my favourite films is Logan's Run. You have to be pushing 60 to remember it, but basically they just kill everyone when they reach 30. Oh, and Soylent Green, you have to be even older for that one.

That's the way forward. Fucking old people just cluttering the place up with their breaks. They need to go, I tell ye.

London pays more in tax because of a relatively small number of highly paid City workers.
And are you really advocating that the poorest areas with people on low wages should have the worst Government funded or subsidised services?

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/09/scrapping-free-bus-travel-older-people-cost

'The study says that four out of five of those eligible take up bus passes, and more than 1.2bn trips were taken across Britain by 12m pass holders in 2012/13.

According to Passenger Focus research, some 95% of passengers believe older and disabled people should be entitled to a free bus pass.'

I would factor in paying for meals out, lunchboxes, overnight stays. It generates a huge amount of money. It get's those over 60 out and about. That has to be a good thing. Most of those will be volunteers, taking up the slack during hours when others don't want them.

It's an economic generator. Plus it helps with well being.

No, but I get sick of the London bashing, "London gets" but London pays, and pays for more than it gets.

And no it isnt just because of the city workers that London pays more in tax, we have a far higher number of well paid people here, it also includes VAT etc.

darth London gets a lot more in terms of services compared to the NW. Just take my Dad as an example. He has cancer, it's taken two years to get a diagnosis. Wait for treatment (removal or radiotherapy) is 16 weeks. I registered him at his London home and wait for treatment is 2 weeks along with many more options for treatment. They are also offering transportation to and from the clinic. There are lots of things like this that make many northerners resent London.

Imagine the state of the NHS if all those 12m passengers had their means of getting out and about removed? The extra strain on working families. It's an excellent idea, financially it works and without a shadow of a doubt, it should stay.

Why?

I don't resent London at all. I just get tired of the posters who assume that what London has, we all have.
So anywhere else certainly in England, you have to be at least 65, and you only get off peak bus travel free. Very different to the title of the OP.

*that was to the OP btw

Definitely makes more sense to discount for teens imo.

But as I said, London more than pays for the services it does have! Just having a higher density of population makes the services easier to provide though.

I get sick of the London bashing. It more than pays for it self, in fact it contributes nearly 3 times what it takes out in tax.

They do, as do disabled people. Well after 9.30 we do.

It's called a bus pass but I can take trains within a certain area, and trams. It is paid for by central government.On longer journies I just pay from the boarder.

www.networkwestmidlands.com/tickets-and-passes/concessionary-passes/

I can also use my pass on buses in London.

I really wish those in London would start realising that most of us do not get the same perks as those inside London do.

Brasty ChazsBrilliantParade mentioned ages ago that the Freedom Pass for those who live in London Boroughs who are over the age of 60 is a subsidy freely entered into by London boroughs and administered through TfL (Transport for London).

Same with free travel for children under 12 - whether they are from London or not, btw. You just have to get them photo ID. So Londoners are subsidising child visitors who don't live here but want to come on holiday to see our museums and stuff. I'll let that go, because I'm generous like that even to the extent of giving tourists directions and wishing them a lovely stay.

Without looking it up, I think Chaz said that TfL takes about £6bn in fares annually, so though it is a perk, it's paid for by those who use the London travel network and doesn't cost anyone who doesn't use it a bean.

If your local authority wants to band together with others and a transport provider, or the provider of any other service, then they can do that. Why don't you campaign for that?

stoviesplease why? As a teenager I lived in an area with poor public transport, and simply walked a lot. Teenagers are in a much better position to walk 2-3 miles somewhere, than someone over 65.

He has cancer, it's taken two years to get a diagnosis. Wait for treatment (removal or radiotherapy) is 16 weeks. I registered him at his London home and wait for treatment is 2 weeks along with many more options for treatment. They are also offering transportation to and from the clinic. There are lots of things like this that make many northerners resent London.

I really dislike 'postcode lotteries' in healthcare (and for that reason very much disagree with decentralising provision), but I'm not so convinced that the inequalities always go that way, as you seem to be suggesting. The South East has the worst IVF provision, for instance.

It's an economic generator. Plus it helps with well being.

And that too Elendon

I had no idea that children visiting London could get free transport. I have paid a fortune for that in the past. I doubt many people know that. And unlike travelcards or passes, I have never seen any advertising for that. Indeed whenever I buy a train ticket, the site always tries to sell me a travel pass for children and adults.

Yup 50% of TFL is funded by fares, the rest is funded by the business rates paid in London and the money from congestion charge.

Doesn't take anything from anyone else.

Limited Same with free travel for children under 12 - whether they are from London or not, btw. You just have to get them photo ID. So Londoners are subsidising child visitors who don't live here but want to come on holiday to see our museums and stuff. I'll let that go, because I'm generous like that even to the extent of giving tourists directions and wishing them a lovely stay.

Yes to this. Tourists generate money, especially those with children. It more than pays for itself. It's an excellent idea.

Logan's Run is close than you think. I have a fair idea how things are going and I have my suicide plan in place. I have no income because of the new state pension rules, I expect my husband to die before me and I refuse to be a burden on my children. They are having a hard enough time as it is. All our retirement plans went out of the window with the last economic crash and try as I might I can't live on fresh air.

So, when all you younger people discover that as you get older, you haven't earned enough to provide everything that your children wanted/needed, buy your own house, climb up the career ladder AND have enough spare time to care for your elderly parents - the ones who didn't earn enough to pay £30,000+ a year for residential care, the current rate-ish - don't say you weren't warned.

Oh, and as for Londoner's paying more tax than the rest of us? Perhaps that to do with London having most of everything and keeping it for themselves? Almost all the country's assets are down there, together with a bigoted attitude, centuries old about 'us' and 'them'. Anyone else remember the odious man who insisted that the Armouries shouldn't be relocated to Leeds in 1996 because northern plebs couldn't possibly appreciate their significance etc etc?

London doesn't keep it for its self. It contributes 30% of all of the tax take but gets 11% of public spending
If London kept it all for its self then the country would be in a far weaker state.

All travel on buses and trains for over 60s is free in Merseyside.

My parents both have a pass even though they both work full time, both have fancy cars and go on at least 7 holidays a year. It's not right really.

You forget the environmental issues. Every time I use my bus pass, it's a car journey not being made.

You forget the environmental issues. Every time I use my bus pass, it's a car journey not being made.

Well, that's true every time I use the bus too, it's just that it also cost me money. Again, these are arguments for universal free buses, not for free bus passes for over 60s.

Personally, I would give the free passes to over 70s - the age at which you have to start renewing your driving licence every three years - as part of a general campaign to encourage people to be more realistic about whether they're now too old to drive safely. I would like to see driving while knowing that your vision and reaction times are no longer up to it becoming as socially unacceptable as drunk driving, and I think this is the best justification for pensioner bus passes: as a nudge towards getting off the roads.