Feel like a mug paying for buses in Wales

[CaptainArcher]

I live in North Wales and the cost of a daily ticket on the bus is now £7.70 a weekly ticket is £28 now…

It seems like every time i board the bus I'm the only mug actually paying, i tap on and off with my bank card. Everyone else is a pensioner using their free bus pass, or people my age (30s) have a white pass card.. Which means they're on the sick

To make matters worse, i visit across the border sometimes to the Wirral and buses are so much more reasonably.. £2 for a single trip

I can drive bus i gave up cars a few years ago to save money and live a more simpler life

@AnonymousemousesIn Gtr Manchester the single ticket can be used for more than one trip (ie changing buses at a stop) within an hour of ticket purchase. It may be the same in your area, and might suit your schedule 🤞

Ooh that's expensive OP. I'm SE England and its £3 a journey, £21 a week or £73 a month. How much is your monthly ticket? Even if its expensive it might be cheaper than daily. £73 a month works out half price for me and weekends of I need buses then.

I have one of the disabled bus passes,due to losing my license after brain surgery,Glad you’re angry about it,I’d swap with you and be able to drive.
i still have to pay bus fare if I travel before 9.30am.

Don't come to Scotland the under 22s also get free bus travel it would blow your mind!

I wouldn’t be it’s ending soon.

also I’d prefer the free prescriptions. Needed 4 this month so that costed me just under £40 🤮

I got 5 buses in South Manchester last week and total was £4. It’s capped at £5, but you can changes buses within a hour with a £2 ticket and I managed 3 buses in an hour.

You don't have to be "on the sick" to have a bus pass in Wales. You can be given one for having a medical condition that means you are unable to drive

Check the train price DiL now catches the train to work as it's only £2.50 each way (also North Wales)

Hey @CaptainArcher Maybe you should send a message to Keir Starmer, see if he can take the bus passes away from the elderly and the disabled too! Why not? I mean it's not like they need them hey? 🙄

#sarcasm

Do they use buses much though?
You said they have a car.

It may be different in cities, but I live more rurally (though near a small town) and wealthier older people don’t tend to use buses much, if at all.
Those on a budget are the ones who use them.

Considering that Wales and Scotland get free prescriptions (don't know if northern Ireland do) for everyone.
Why not charge a smaller fee for all of the UK countries.

More concerned about that than bus prices.

They could be, I know pensioners who get the bus for fun to "get their money's worth." Never mind that NHS workers have to stand after a 12 hour shift as long as they're having a good time.

I didn't know buses were for essential journeys only ?

It could be both.

I'd like to know whether the OP's car-owning parents have got themselves bus passes. You have to apply for them, they don't just magically appear in the post.

And if they do have passes, do they use them? Or do they just use the car they own?

People as wealthy as your grandparents don’t have to use their bus pass, they can pay the bus fare if they want. But they probably don’t travel on buses as they have cars.

The people you see on buses using passes are probably not as wealthy as your grandparents. And being wealthy isn’t just a question of getting your shit together. If it was that simple we’d all be just like your grandparents.

Why do fares cost so much more there than in England?

It is £3 most places now. The cap was lifted March this year.

I pay £2.70 to get to the local shops.

I don't know about the OP but my parents and in laws all have bus passes and regular use them. They are relatively well off and own cars too.

I got my free bus pass mainly as an extra, portable form of photo id for voting etc as I don’t have a photo driving licence, only a paper one and don’t want to take my passport everywhere when it’s not necessary. I’ve used it a couple of times but mostly drive. As Horus says, I’ve paid taxes all my life, and never claimed benefits.

We still have £2 buses here.

Regarding retired people - they can't use their cards during commuting hours so it isn't quite the freebie the OP would need

They are called twirlies by the bus drivers round here as often chance their luck before 9:30. Oh am I too early? and off they get.

Well it’s not restricted but it’s really common for people to get on the bus going from Perth to Edinburgh and then come right back. It’s just really somewhere warm to sit and chat. Possibly cheaper/ more sensible ways to give people somewhere warm to chat.

Can't you get a prepayment certificate?

I've paid an awful lot of tax and never claimed benefits including Child Benefit. By your logic, why can't I get a bus pass as I am a net contributor? I imagine I have paid an awful lot more into the system than many 65+ year olds already. Also does your logic mean that those pensioners that haven't paid in much tax and claimed a lot of benefits shouldn't be entitled to the bus pass?

I don't see the harm they are doing really, isolation and loneliness in the elderly is common a bus jaunt breaks up their day, and I'm sure not all buses are full to the brim every day with pensioners that nobody else can get a seat !

Why don't you go "on the sick" and get a white card?