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?

Yes they will. But I always come into St Pancras, and there are always enormous queues at the ticket booths. Often of people who speak little or poor English, so the queue is very slow.
But thanks, I know now.

DarthPlagues People are taxed if they have more than £8,000 income a year. That is very little if you still pay rent as many of the poorer pensioners do. Remember housing benefit still counts as income and can be taxed.

My parents rent on a tiny council house is £5,000 a year. Private rent would be much more.

I'm in London, 64, by no means on the breadline but not rich. I paid for previous generations of 60+ to have their free travel - through fares then rates then poll-tax then council-tax - regardless of means and now it's my turn and I like it.

Pensioners get the same tax allowance as everyone else and don't pay NI.

www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/saving-into-a-pension/pensions-and-tax/how-is-my-pension-taxed

Housing benefit is tax free.

People are taxed if they have more than £8,000 income a year

The personal tax allowance is now £11,000. If you think that's too low then by all means campaign for the allowance to be increased, but surely it's then also unfair that, say, a working 32 year old gets taxed on anything over £11,000 while also paying rent? I can't see why the tax threshold becomes any more or less of a problem as soon as you retire.

I think each region/county's transport provider does there own thing. I read years ago that there was free countrywide bus travel for over 60's, but people regularly used to abused the service by travelling the country, say from Brighton to Scotland (I can't remember the exact locations) and back for free and the bus companies had to turn paying customers away, so they kept making a loss.

I guess TfL make enough profit to supply this service, but 60 is too young.

I really think that it is time we moved on from thinking of 60 as old age. The retirement age of police officers and fire fighters is now 60 years so we, as a society, have agreed that generally someone aged 59 years and 300 odd days should still be fit enough to perform those stressful and physical roles. We can't then say that those same people are in their old age at 60 years and 1day. I think age related benefits like bus passes, should be pushed back to 70 (I am certain that the state pension age will be made 70 before I retire), it's just ridiculous to do things like give free bus passes to people who the government/society believes should, generally, still be working.

Often of people who speak little or poor English, so the queue is very slow.

Is that the customers in the queue? Yes, they can be a problem. London attracts people from all over the world. They clutter up the rest of the place too but

Hey I think it is great that London attracts people from all over the world. Just explaining why I don't use the ticket booth at St Pancras underground.

Apologies, I thought the tax free allowance was still about £8,000.

Yes they will. But I always come into St Pancras, and there are always enormous queues at the ticket booths. Often of people who speak little or poor English, so the queue is very slow.

There aren't ticket booths in stations any more, but regardless, you don't need a ticket booth
You just walk up to the accessible gate (the wide one) which will have a member of staff standing next to it, and they open thopen gate for children
No need to stand in line behind any filthy foreigners and their terrible grasp of the language

There is a travel information centre. That is what I meant.
And no need to put words in my mouth.

In answer to the original question, it was Boris Johnson who introduced it as a way of getting people to vote for him.

Its also paid for by TFL, which is entirely funded by London and not from the general tax take.

Agree that the over 60s are supposed to be the wealthiest demographic, but as pps have said the cost of means testing would outweigh the savings. I will be eligible for a pass next year (living in Scotland) - but as public transport is so poor in rural areas I will not be able to use it and must drive. I would like to see free bus passes abolished, and money spent instead on providing public transport to ALL, with affordable fares. Last time I got on a bus, some 5 years ago, I almost fainted at the cost of £6 odd to go 10 miles. Cheaper, even for one person in the car, to drive and pay for parking!

but people regularly used to abused the service by travelling the country, say from Brighton to Scotland (I can't remember the exact locations) and back for free and the bus companies had to turn paying customers away, so they kept making a loss.

You have to travel on local buses - which tend to take ages and literally go round the houses. So it would take a couple of days at least to get from Brighton to Scotland. I would suspect that the only people who do this, are transport nuts who enjoy planning the journeys and have the time. I do know one couple who have done that, but the effort involved is more trouble than it's worth for most of us. It's not Mr & Mrs Average pensioner, who use their bus pass for the weekly trip to Sainsbury's or a hospital trip, or similar.

You have to travel on local buses - which tend to take ages and literally go round the houses. So it would take a couple of days at least to get from Brighton to Scotland. I would suspect that the only people who do this, are transport nuts who enjoy planning the journeys and have the time.

This isn't necessarily true, or at least hasn't always necessarily been true. I'm an academic and remember another academic once proudly telling me that he'd got the X5 bus from Cambridge to Oxford, which is one of the most direct ways to do that journey and the route most people use, for free to go to the conference we were at. So had I, but it had cost me something like £15-20. He was a professor who must have made about four or five times my salary at the time. This was a few years ago, so maybe it wouldn't happen now - but I have to confess it did rankle!

I think the Stagecoach X5 might just count as a Local bus. I was thinking more of National Express and the airline buses, where you can't use your bus pass.

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

How so? Is Merseyside different to the rest of England? You get a free buss pass at the age of retirement - I will be 62 this year and won't get mine for another 4 years.

but people regularly used to abused the service by travelling the country, say from Brighton to Scotland (I can't remember the exact locations) and back for free and the bus companies had to turn paying customers away, so they kept making a loss.. Bus companies are never at a loss because of this. The fares are subsidised by the government.

If your children have left home, you have paid off your mortgage, and you are still working, then it is easy to build up savings. This is why many in their early 60s tend to have more money. But if you are still paying rent, then it is a different story.
If it didnt cost more to means test, than any savings, I would agree that this benefit should only be for the poorest pensioners. But I do not want the poorest pensioners to be house bound because they can't pay a bus fare. For these pensioners,keeping them active will I suspect save taxpayers money overall from the NHS budget and Social Care budget.

Apparently Merseyside and London have more in common than I thought!

In London you used to get a Freedom Pass at 60; free buses, local trains, and Tubes. When it began it was only off-peak and weekends but later it was made available at all times. In 2009 (by the decision of central government) the age began to increase by two months every month so that it would eventually reach 66, but in 2012 a replacement was introduced, officially called a 60+ card, but known as a Boris Card because of who was then in charge here, which has the same effect; it is exchanged for a Freedom Pass when you are eligible.

The only difference is that a Freedom Pass also includes local buses outside London to the same extent as a locally issued card does.

The effect is that now that I have my Freedom Pass I can drive to Oxford on a Saturday, put my car in the Park-and-Ride, and take the bus into Oxford for nothing; during the week I have to wait for 9.30.

So leccybill do your parents' passes have some limited effect outside Merseyside like mine does outside London?

but people regularly used to abused the service by travelling the country, say from Brighton to Scotland (I can't remember the exact locations) and back for free

Nonsense... I live just outside Brighton and Scotland is over 500 miles away. It would take a week or so! The passes are for use on local busses not national coaches.

Free bus and train passes are only useful if you have a bus and train service. We have neither round these parts.