Freedom passes no longer completely free.

[SweetiePi3]

During lockdown, people with freedom passes were not allowed to use tfl transport before 9.30 am. This took away their right to be used 24 hours. Since lockdown this has not been revoked. Do tfl think that people with a freedom pass never need to travel before that, whatever the reason?

Disabled people can still use their passes whenever they like, it is only older people who cannot. This seems reasonable, many people aged 60+ are still working or have amassed large amounts of wealth. Yes, some older people may struggle to afford a ticket but so do some younger people and it’s not like there is even an option to travel for free off peak for younger people. Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re entitled to everything for free all of the time.

They've always been off peak. In my parents' day they were called Twirlies because pensioners used to ask bus drivers 'I am too-early?' to get on the bus if it was around 9.30 am.

I agree with this and I live in London!

People in London don’t know they are born when you compare public transport prices across the country (as I always remember when I go home to visit family) and that’s with at least three tfl price rises since lockdown

OP you would be paying a lot more for your peak travel outside of London as passes like yours are only for off peak in most of the country. So for this YABU

I actually think the peak times should be cheaper than other time. People are paying less going for a day out than going to work which seems ridiculous to me.

So is the Oyster card. Once you have made around three journeys (peak or off peak) in a day on any Tube, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail or National Rail train within Zones 1-6 using Oyster/contactless you will pay no more and will be able to travel for free for the rest of the day.

Good I’d forgotten the price differences too. And multiple private bus companies covering an area so you need several £3+ tickets to do a one way journey of a few miles (and that was over a decade ago, god knows how much my 20 minute journey into town would cost now). And free travel for kids!! NOWHERE else I know in the country has that. London needs a short sharp shock; TFL prices need to go up or else you’ll lose an incredible service that you pay a pittance for and it’ll be a free market free for all and you’ll rue the day you moaned about paying a single peak fare

YABU. If you want to travel at peak times pay for it. Freedom passes should be means tested not for some of the richest in society just because they've made it to retirement

Not even retirement; just made it to 60. I can only dream of retiring at 60, I’m looking at 70+!

I don't know why 60 y olds get them still. Surely most people retired at 60 can afford to pay!

aramox1 · Today 22:29
I don't know why 60 y olds get them still. Surely most people retired at 60 can afford to pay!

Because of the grey vote. Obviously

Or else avail yourself of the million charities in London too; you have so many services available to you genuinely denied the rest of the country full stop and you don’t even know.

God, this.

They never used to be able to be used before 9.30, it was off peak when it was introduced when I was a child

I think free travel for children and young people is great. It means disadvantaged, low income families can apply for the school they really want without having to pay for travel. Going to good schools help children realise their full potential, which means they get better jobs and pay more tax, which supports high quality services. It’s a virtuous circle. At weekends they can visit our city’s great museums and many cultural offerings for no charge.

I agree with others, there has always been time restrictions on the 60 plus travel cards.

All benefits change unfortunately, state pension age was once 60 years old but now its 67 or 68 years old.

It's a shame the travel cards have changed, but I can't imagine they will reverse the times in this current economic climate. I hope they don't change them for the worse ...and make the passes for 67 plus.

I think it is fair!

where I live rurally the elderly can use their bus passes before 09:30 . This absolutely infuriates me and lots of other people too, who pay.

This is because we have an hourly bus service that takes 1 hr 20 minutes to get to The City.

I use the bus daily to commute to work it is maddening that I either have to walk a few stops back to get on the bus or I cannot get on at all because it is full of the elderly getting out and about early.

okay some may have a genuine reason to be out on the bus at 07:15 in the morning like a medical appointment, but many do not where I live they are just riding around bus hopping.

Those with bus passes should be restricted to 09:30 .unless disabled. If the elderly want to go out before then then they pay . It is only £2:00 or £2:50 a single journey with the fare cap .

old people have all day to ride around on their bus passes I don’t , as have to be in work for 09;00.like many other people.

The bus driver if you can’t get on “ there is another bus in an hour at 08:15” yes, like I have all the time in the world to wait an hour and my boss being happy when I roll in to work late because I cannot get on the bus because of elderly occupying the bus in peak time.

when the bus passes were restricted in my area . The busses before 09:30 were only for fair paying passengers and you could always get on!

There’s loads of affluent areas in london, I am sure parents of schoolchildren and students at college and universities could afford the bus/train fares which are free for them. There’s a registration fee of about 20 pounds at each renewal, so tfl are getting some income.

Ah right I don't live in London so all that is like word salad to me tbh

Why have you got 5 different types of train.

If the OP sends me her bank details, I'll send her the coat of a single bus fare. Isn't it capped at £2 at the moment?

After all, I'm paying the rest of her travel costs through my taxes. Seems a bit unfair not to pay this as well!

It always used to be off peak only. I vividly remember the days of being abused by the cluster of ‘twirlies’ who would congregate around 15 mins before their passes worked on the gates. Being spoken too like I was beneath them and called a jobsworth only made me more rigid though. When they worked on the gates then you can come in. For a time it was unrestricted, now it’s back to restricted again. As well it should be. It was part of the funding deal made to keep tfl running after the pandemic.

This with bells on. It’s free, FFS - completely free travel, whilst everyone else gets the pleasure of paying (the frankly outrageous) full price and subsidising you.

It’s absolutely not unreasonable for that privilege to come with a few very minor restrictions, yet here you are moaning about it. With the state of the economy at the moment I wouldn’t have been surprised if the passes had been curtailed even more than they have, and even then I’d be delighted to get one. Don’t be a choosing beggar, OP.

Nope. I remember going to school on the bus in London in the 80's and "twirlies" were defo a thing then.

This is how it is in most areas but linked to retirement age. Where my gran lives (rurally) they have a term Twirlies , contraction of too early (to use their bus passes) which are valid after 9:30am

If I remember correctly, the government insisted that the mayor removed the right to travel before 9.20 am as one of the conditions of getting funding to cover TFL’s losses during the pandemic.

£1.75 in London