Forum Topic

60+ Oyster card potentially more restrictions or complete withdrawal

Have you seen this? You may wish to read and respond!https://ageuklondon.act.sixandtwothrees.com/save_travel_concessions/?dm_i=47X,73HRV,WNSWUW,SOJ0M,1

Joy Griffiths ● 2194d13 Comments

All so they can spend money instead on making a few through-cyclists happy.  It's appalling.

Claire Moran ● 2194d

Clare - do you truly believe that if TfL hadn’t spent any money on cycling infrastructure that the travel pass wouldn’t be under threat?The relationship between the government and the Mayor, and loss of revenue due to the pandemic is considerably more significant in this respect than the money spent on cycling infrastructure.

Andrew Jones ● 2194d

I think Freedom Passes will still be OK as they're funded by local councils.  It usually comes from their income from traffic fines, so Hounslow should be OK.

Peter Evans ● 2194d

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't every pensioner in the UK have a Freedom pass not just Londoners?  Certainly my sister who lives in Colchester has one.  The point of them ws that you could travel the length and breadth of the UK by bus for free.  It would be very unfair if just Londoners were to lose it.

Bernadette Paul ● 2194d

That's right, Bernadette. I suspect that the 60+ card is in more danger than the Freedom Pass. I don't advocate withdrawing it on the grounds that I have benefited from it myself for the past 5 years and don't want to pull the ladder up after me, but it's quite hard to justify.It wouldn't surprise me if the 60+ card went, with the government acting as if they're doing us a massive favour by letting us keep the Freedom Pass.

Susan Kelly ● 2194d

The 60+ card is just for Londoners, the Freedom Pass is nationwide and you get it when your state pension starts.

Lucy Chambers ● 2194d

If you're not a Londoner, Freedom Pass is buses only. The contrast between the deal given to the Train Operating Companies and what's being offered to TfL shows that what we're seeing is political spite. Johnson has a big fares subsidy from central Government when he ran London, Khan got nothing. Pork-barrel politics.

David McLoughlin ● 2193d

I have used my Freedom Pass in York and other places. I once used it to go from Hammersmith to Windsor on a Green Line bus, and was the only passenger until Slough. But  friends visiting from Wales can't use the Welsh equivalent outside Wales, and no doubt vice-versa. Are we still the United Kingdom?And is the ban on using the Pass before 9am still in place? I have to get to Charing Cross Hospital tomorrow morning, and will have to set out earlier than usual because of the current chaos.

Arnold Saxton ● 2193d

A friend who lives in Scotland told me that they get their bus pass at 60, not at retirement age. She still seemed rather put out that she couldn't use the pass when visiting England though (just as we can't use ours in Scotland).Re using the bus pass before 9.00a.m. - I was asked to pay once some weeks back but since then have been using it fine. You just never know though ...

Anne England ● 2193d

Arnold, a person who is receiving his/her old age pension living in Slough can travel on the same Green Line bus as you for free. However, in London they cannot use the Tube, Overground or local rail services with their Freedom Pass as this is a privilege only London residents can access. Additionally, there is no 60+ Freedom Pass for people living outside of London. So it is not even a united Home Counties.

John Connelly ● 2193d

A holder of a Freedom Pass issued by LB Hounslow can use it on the bus services in Birmingham, but not the trams.

Richard Greenhough ● 2193d

The threat to our bus passes and to Chiswick & Acton being put inside the congestion charge zone has abated.For now.

Susan Kelly ● 2190d

“Despite providing the private rail operating companies with 18 months of funding with no conditions attached, the Government has refused to give TfL more than a six-month deal and even this has come with conditions.”https://www.london.gov.uk//press-releases/mayoral/mayor-reaches-deal-on-tfl-fundingSix-month deal means £1.8 billion of Government grant and borrowing made available on current projections to Transport for London (TfL) to keep services running until March 2021  Mayor rejects government plans for huge extension of the Congestion Charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners and increasing TfL fares by more than previously agreed  Transport for London to make £160m of savings this financial year, and City Hall will need to raise additional income to protect concessions for older and younger Londoners for future years - if the Mayor wants to continue these Mayor says deal is ‘not ideal’ but adds that he fought hard against the Government’s determination to punish London

Martin Weaver ● 2189d