Free Transport By 2003

Safe, accessible, reliable and affordable: Help the Aged calls on the Government to implement a nationwide system of free, full fare, bus passes by 2003 at the latest

The gender inequality in concessionary fare schemes is being addressed by legislation currently before the Westminster parliament. But geographical inequality remains, with London and parts of England, Northern Ireland, and (by 2002) Scotland and Wales offering free local bus travel to all pensioners, but four out of five older people in England must still pay. Help the Aged is calling on the Government to end this post code anomaly, in the name of fairness, simplicity, and administrative economy. Furthermore, free bus travel schemes available in some regions are proving extraordinarily beneficial for the well-being of older people.

• Seventy nine per cent of older people in England are currently NOT benefiting from free local bus travel.
• Boundary restrictions of bus passes - one major source of complaint to Help the Aged SeniorLine and the National Pensioners Convention. Older people on lower incomes have stated that journeys to hospital, often outside their travel pass area, represented the most difficulties for them.
• In the West Midlands, of the 850,000 pensioner journeys per week on public transport, 40 per cent would not have been made and 15 per cent would have been made by other means if the free travel pass had not been available.
• Take-up of concessionary schemes is lowest amongst groups including ethnic minorities; those aged over 75, and those living in rural areas.
• Fifty four per cent of pensioner households in England do not have a car

The free bus travel scheme available to older people in the West Midlands illustrates exactly how enormously beneficial free travel can be. Pensioners reliant on the State Pension as their only source of income made 70 per cent of the total transport journeys which were made using concessionary passes. It is estimated that an additional 94,500 journeys by car per week would be made if travel passes were withdrawn.

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