To think free bus passes should be reformed

[Ll81]

Where I am the bus is so expensive it' usually has very few paying customers. services are being cut as the funding for the free bus pass has been cut and this was one given reason for raising fares and cutting services. Further compounding the problems.

To get to sign on from here is £16 and two busses. No help for anyone on low incomes or JSA.

In London tfl has over a billion pound debt, but still give out the freedom pass.

I've no problem with people that can't afford to run a car getting help with massively subsidised transport costs. For pensioners the calculation is already done for state pension so next to no means testing cost. Then people that need help could pay 95% less for the cost and people with money pay full cost. People often don't value "free" stuff.

The current system is killing off busses, espically in rural and semi rural areas.

Because my children go to school...primary school.

So you and your children want to get the bus to school but you don't think other school children should be allowed to? Right...

Slartybartfast

Yes. Her benefits lifestyle has made me financially responsible for her ever since I had a Saturday job at 16.

Im still subbing her rent that she cant pay now as she spends all her benefits spoiling my sisters kids.

And also @Slartybartfast Ive been the butt of many nasty comments from my mother such as get a job before your brain rots when i lost my job via redundancy last year and this is thr first time ive been out of work since i left uni.

Its acceptable for her to not work most of her life and my sister because they had kids

In the afternoons when I walk down to my children's school I can never get the bus down as there is 40 kids waiting at the bus stop. Of course its a problem it not only passes me but every other paying customer as well.

Im still subbing her rent that she cant pay now as she spends all her benefits spoiling my sisters kids.

Thats your own stupidity, not TFLs fault.

And I'm actually going to pick up my kids from school not to the local town centre for macdonalds .

The irony of a mother having to walk to get her kid from school because ther are other peoples kids on a bus.... you couldnt write the posts on MN at times

Because tfl is in debt
And they are managing it. I'd rather trust the people in charge of transport in London to look after their finances than some random person on the Internet.

I said the problems occurs from secondary not primary. I've never seen 40 primary school kids stood at one bus stop.

Thats your own stupidity, not TFLs fault.

True my sister can pay for her sorry arse from now on

Well I live in London, and have a freedom pass, and I use it loads. I use it to go out and about, to get to my volunteering job,to meet friends for coffee or lunch, to go to the cinema, to visit museums and galleries, to meet up with my walking group, go to my creative class, to go to the cinema the theatre or the library. At most of these outings I will spend money on entrance fees, coffee, cake, lunch etc etc. My social life keeps me mentally active and happy and physically fit. I am also contributing to the economy, helping to support other people's jobs, keeping services open for other people.

If I didn't have my freedom pass the chances are I wouldn't get about so much, I wouldn't be putting so much of my money back into the economy, I could become depressed, my health could deteriorate, I could end up costing the NHS masses in doctors appointments . I think the freedom pass is keeping me, and I suspect a lot of other people of my age involved ,healthy and active.I think the freedom pass gives direct benefits to many people like me, and indirectly to the wider community.

The Zip card (oyster card for children) only gives free bus travel. Once they are over 11, even with a zip card they have to pay a child rate on tubes and TFL trains.

I live in Zone 5, my 12 year old DS goes to a school either 3 buses away or 1 tube ride and a bus (but he usually calls for a lift from the tube station) and we always need to keep money on his card.

Both my DGrandparents and DP make / have made full use of their freedom pass both on day trips into town and hospital appointments.

No it isn't. The bus companies get an amount from central government to offset the 'free' travel. The companies are not loosing money.

Yes it is as the amount they give is far far less than an adult fare.

Dancingfairy - you may change your tune when your kids are at secondary and you don't have to fork out to pay their fares to school and round and about at weekends. Free travel makes a big difference to London parents' budgets.

secondary school bus fares are means tested here.

Utterly with you. My parents have a new car every year as are wealthy,we have 1 x20 year old car between 5 and aren't. We have 3 teens and are quite rural. Our tiny library times have been hugely reduced and only suit oaps to be honest. Rarely open when teens need it. Nearest city with big library which is only a 20 min bus journey costs £5 for a child. My parents don't need a free bus pass,my teens do.

We pay a fortune for school bus fare. Our dc don't go to their catchment school so get that is our choice but outside of school getting 3 dependants and us from a-b is expensive.

I wouldn't mind paying tbh. Im not saying it has to be full price my mum paid £5 a week for mine but just something to stop the sheer amount of secondary school kids that get on. I've been on the bus when the driver has drove straight past this particular bus stop so even they get fed up. Or even when they do stop they keep piling on even when the driver tells them there is no room. The bus stop out side this school is not even comparable to my kids primary school. There is less than a quarter of the amount of children waiting. You can't even fit past them on the pavement you have to cross the road.

Means tested would be better as a lot do live local but will get on to go 2-3 stops or like I said to the town centre.

i dont think any government would dare bring in means tested bus passes.

*No it isn't. The bus companies get an amount from central government to offset the 'free' travel. The companies are not loosing money.

Yes it is as the amount they give is far far less than an adult fare.*

But the number of passengers they'd have would be far less without free bus passes. Some elderly people would give up on going out if they had to pay bus fares, with consequent effects on their mental and physical health and consequences for the NHS. Others would continue to drive for longer than is perhaps advisable.

And well-off pensioners having a new car every year aren't costing the system anything as the subsidy to the bus company is per journey - no journeys made, no subsidy, no cost.

No its just wishful thinking I know it wouldn't change. The times when Im walking and I pass the bus stop when a bus is just pulling up I can't help but feel resentful.. That's all.

Because tfl is in debt and all if the pensioners i know around here dont venture into london alone

I know plenty of pensioners who make good use of their bus passes - and that means the busses are available for me if I need to use them. The more users, the more busses.

Personally I think the TFL route is the right way to go in a town. Every privatised bus service I've used has been horribly expensive, and prone to change as soon as they can get out of the unprofitable routes.

It'd be better if public transport were subsidised for all to the extent that some of us could be enticed out of our cars. I can just about live with the fact that on my most frequent journey there are only 5 trains a day and the journey will take an extra 30 min, but the last straw is that I have to pay extra for the privilege. And once there are two of us in the car, it would be madness to take the train.

The benefits of bus travel are the same for people of all ages.

If they are only receiving 35% of an adult fare even if "free" journeys were reduced by 2/3 they would still make the same money and if more people paid the tickets could reduce and encourage more people to use them. Around here you just don't bother with the bus as it's so much more expensive than a car it's not worth it.