To think children should be free on buses the same as OAPs

[P3onyPenny]

Our bus company used to charge £7 for a 10 mile adult ticket and £1 each for children which wasn't too bad. The £1 child ticket has now been scrapped and I've just paid £18 for me and 3 dc to travel 10 miles. I think that is extortionate. The Park and Ride is always filled by office workers and city parking is extortionate. I don't always have access to a car. During the holidays the bus was always full with a variety of ages and several children. Now it only appears to be OAPs on it. We were literally the only non OAPs travelling,I presume due to the cost. We live in a fairly rural area,our library is rarely open( unlike the city one) and we don't have the city shops or many amenities such as cinema,sports centre,big shops etc.

We'll just organise ourselves so I can drive into town,pay the extortionate parking and add to the congestion. Other families not so fortunate won't be able to do this and to be honest environmentally I don't think it should be encouraged anyway.

My parents have a brand new car and are far better off than us. It just seems daft that they get bus transport free and kids who don't have any income don't.

AIBU to think oap bus passes should be means tested with the money saved funding a child bus pass scheme? At the very least just for the holidays or even £1 a ticket scheme like Stagecoach ran before.

Affordable public transport is one reason i chose to raise my children in a town. I didn't want to give up easy access to library/ shops/ cinema etc so chose not to move to a village despite the advantages there might be to living in the countryside. If you want to campaign for more / better/ cheaper bus services then come up with a workable & realistic idea to fund it. Then lobby the local council etc about how you think they should spend their budget, but the lack of public transport and how you would cope with it as your children grew up is something you should have anticipated when deciding where to live.

It would be lovely if transport was free to all, it is a genuinely great idea for the environment and congestion. Without wishing to be overly confrontational though, what public spending would you see cut to fund it? Increasing taxes of those wealthy OAPs to give the poor millennial snow flakes free bus rides isn't going to be a vote winner
By the way, my personal beliefs are that transport, water, electricity and gas are natural monopolies and ought to be under public control. Profits would be reinvested I to the economy rather than paying shareholders. Just because things have been badly run in the past doesn't mean it isn't possible.

cholka What about people who have no choice but to use a car? I work at an airport about 30 miles away (after being unemployed for almost a year, jobs are not easy to come by where I live). I work shifts, I use a combination of car and public transport (drive to a tram stop with free parking) without a car I could not get there, there are no trains early enough to get me there for the start of my shift from where I live. Yes, I could move but having done so six times in six years and with my DH recovering from illness I’m not in a position to at the moment. I will think about a serious discussion with DH about it when he’s better and I’ve passed my probation (only started in June) I’d love to be able to just jump on a train or tram but for a lot of us, it’s not possible and not everyone lives where there are job or public transport to get to jobs.

OP you can also contact the Campaign for Better Transport, there’s a whole section on their website about bus cuts in n rural areas.

Dh and I were discussing this the other day. With kids in tow, it's cheaper to get a taxi around here as the taxi fares are rock bottom. For instance, to get a bus for me and two dc from our road into town one way its 3.80, but a taxi is 2.50.

It's not "but the old people".

I live in a town which had a fully functioning library when we moved here and £1 bus tickets to the city.

We can't all live in the areas with all the best facilities.Times change.

The bus also goes both ways,pretty sure city dwellers with kids going the opposite direction don't appreciate the ludicrous prices either. It's 10 miles!

P3onyPenny well of course means testing CB hasn't proved to be expensive because the amount of CB is the same where ever you live, bus fares are not the same, in my post I referred to two prices by the same company for a 30 day pass which is the cheapest way of buying a ticket, so how would you means test a pensioner in Bournemouth who has only to pay £64 and a pensioner on the IOW who has to pay £99 when both of them have the same income, it cant be done nationally or cheaply unless of course you get all the bus companies to agree to charge paying pensioners the same set fee then it might work, however how do you then ensure that disabled pensioners get the same disabled bus passes as working age people who can apply if they get a non means tested benefit like DLA/PIP which as I have already said pensioners cant claim unless they were already claiming before reaching pension age, unless of course you also want to means test all disabled people

Free in London

How are my dc millennial snowflakes just because they want to go to the city library and use the facilities but don't yet work?

We're in our 50s and have paid more than our way via taxes,not sure I could be described as a milenniál snowflake either. Buses were affordable when I was a kid.

They are free up to age 5 where I live. I wish they were free because when you’re trying to plan cheap days out during the holidays, bus rides just ruin that plan.

it doesn't encourage use of public transport. I took me and 2 children to town and it was £12 for 4.2 miles. Its cheaper to order a book on amazon that go to town and borrow one.

The irony of it is one of my 14 year olds has a little below minimum wage salary couple of hours job which involves a connection that makes the fare even more eyewatering. His wealthy grandparents take him in their uber expensive new eco friendly car when we can't to save his salary being totally eaten up. It would be much easier if they could just give him one of the bus passes they rarely if ever use.

Not all kids are that fortunate. We've had vandalism started up here by bored shatless teens. They need the ability to get out of the place. I used to love sodding off to my local city on the bus as a teen. It's beneficial in so many ways.

Thanks MissCharley will look that up.

Where is this magical place that has "buses"??! I live in a village 6 miles from a major town that has eleventy billion tourists and students in it but the bus from here to there goes once a week only I could use the P&R except it's full by 9am with hospital staff because the hospital doesn't have enough car parks and charges £££ for the ones they have.

I stay at home

I got the bus to see my elderly granny the other day. I don't drive. It cost £10 for me and one child to go 12 miles. That bus usually has 2-3 pensioners on it and nobody else.

Yes our Park and Ride spaces are eaten up by the industrial estate workers paying for one stop and walking back to where it as as much cheaper than parking.Last time I tried to use it it was full so I had to drive back home.My dh's company has allotted rationed days for workers to use the company car park there is so little parking.Its insane and only going to get worse.

He'd happily use the bus if it was affordable and a half decent service.

If you want to lobby your local authority for free or reduced fares for children have at it but why does that need to be effected by taking away the same privilege from another demographic - in this case OAPs? You suggest mean-testing them so would you apply that to families with children too?

If your ILs choose not to use their pass that's entirely up to them and since they are not costing anyone anything by not using it, I'm not sure what your point is there?

I think the problem here isn't that kids shouldn't have cheaper bus travel, it's what you think the council should cut funding for to pay for it. Any ideas OP?

I think London is a different case as it's one of only a small number of places that has a fully integrated public transport system that is used by a large proportion of the population - meaning that there are a lot more paying customers to subsidise other users. The services are frequent and there are lots of them, meaning that they are a viable option instead of driving. Indeed, driving is a pain in the backside in London so many more people don't gave cars and use public transport. But getting to that point means a lot of investment (and /or making travelling by car much less attractive) which brings us back to the question of funding.

The point is many OAPs don't need it and many kids need it more. I don't get this universal benefit for one section of society but not the other.

Who funds cards for OAPs?

Suggested a few ideas. Another is taking money out of the environment budget.

I agree op. Visiting places by bus these holidays has been eye opening to the cost for children and the fact there are virtually zero families on the bus going to turist destinations.
But when it cost £11+ for me +dc to go 30mins whereas that would have been a couple of pound for the car and free parking.
Or NT property 15min by car or 35min by 2 buses and £££ on the bus. Where the car parks are full.
With older dc there is no need to drive places but it is too much easier. If it were free...
There were oaps on the bus going on days out.
It is true the P&R seem cheaper, and yet they are also driving. Their service is already better - buses every 20min compared to 30min or so. So ideally i need to drive to get to the p&r, sigh.
If it works in london to get cars off the road. We need to try it elsewhere and much cheaper off peak fares too.

What's a bus? Rural area here and four buses a week (to different places). And they are under threat.

it's catch 22, if more people used public transport it wouldn't be so expensive.
I do believe that now education is compulsory to 18 that the half fare should continue until 18 though.
It becomes expensive for 6th form if they don't attend a school with free school busses.

And the OAPs who don't need it don't use it so again, they're not costing anyone anything are they? The ones who do need it and do use it why should they be penalised just because your council doesn't do what others do and give free or reduced child fares?

And you didn't address my point about means-testing for families or does only apply to all these filthy rich OAPs who are sitting on buses taking up free spaces that your children should have?

I don't think means testing pensioners will cover the cost of this. Councils have no spare money.

it's catch 22, if more people used public transport it wouldn't be so expensive.

Er, how about trains, which have seen increase upon increase in passenger numbers, yet more expensive fares and a worse service.

Free market economy ? Fee market bollocks, more like.