Great Western Coffee Shop

in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands.

Both local authorities are to allow free bus holders

 to use their bus pass's from first thing in the morning,monday to friday.

Andy Burnham has just announced the same live on question time covering Greater Manchester. Over to you Mr James Freeman!.

Isn't it the council to decide, not the bus company? 

Correct. So have written to Tim Bowles WECA mayor and Don Davies of North Somerset. The dominoes are falling... Cambridge, Suffolk and ...this will have grahame jumping for joy.....EVEN Wiltshire !

I can't use mine until 2022.

Apparently North Somerset set the pace on this from 11am Thursday morning. Surely where NSC leads WECA will follow.

Plymouth city council have removed time restrictions.

Of course Cornwall council scrapped them last April so nothing changing here now

Except for Truro Park and Ride, which doesn't accept concession cards - £2 each for an all day ticket (parking free)

#Me Too.

The end of the age of the Twirly.

Well, I'm a Twirlybird ;D  This is really good news for me personally, as I will be able to head out to the far reaches of the Southwest not served by train, and get there much earlier in consequence.  Only one snag with that. I'm supposed to be confined to home and avoid public transport at the moment..... ::)

Is this the right time to encourage pensioners on to buses or has passenger numbers dropped off so much they will have a deck to themselves.

London has had no restriction for years for all English bus pass holders.

A HUGELY difficult question ... and one I have been fighting with (in terms of public transport promotion in a much more general sense) over the last few days.  I have no answer.

It gives the pass holders half a chance when supermarkets open early for them.

And that is not supported by health officials in the South West as pensioners (me) are all together in  close proximity  in aisles and queues and we are trained in use of a trolley as a lethal weapon.

Before we all start jumping up and down with glee about this, think for a moment about why it is happening and indeed why the restriction was put there in the first place.

For much the same reasons that the TOCs have anytime and off peak fares, buses are quieter outside peak hours. The companies don’t need, and indeed don’t want, concessionary pass holders cluttering up seats when they can sell them for a higher price. To all intents and purposes, the peak doesn’t exist at the moment.

Secondly, many local buses, including most Wiltshire town services (or at least those operated by Faresaver) only operate in off peak hours, with the buses doing the school contract work before and after. And after today there is no school contract work for the foreseeable future.

After today Faresaver are operating their Saturday timetable on most services until further notice. For my particular town bus service, that means a first bus at 0850 rather than 0935 which makes no particular difference to me one way or the other. But it also means that the last town service bus of the day for me will now be 1335 (yes 1335. Not a typo) rather than 1605. That does cause me a problem.

It also means, from a rostering point of view, that the driver will be knocking off at 1430 rather than 1700, and I have my doubts that he will be paid for that missing 2.5 hours. I therefore doubt that he’s singing from the rooftops either, although losing 12.5 hrs a week is better than losing his job.

I have to say that worrying about whether we should “encourage” pass holders to travel is to me a bit like fiddling whilst Rome burns, or the Marketing Executive on the Golgafrinchan B Ark trying to decide what colour fire should be. There are more important things going at the moment than get concerned over whether old Sid down the road is making two return free bus trips per day rather than one.

Personally I'm quite looking forward to the return of the "twirly." It will mean things are back to normal.

Stagecoach in my neck of the woods has announced a switch to school holiday timetables. I won't be going out much, so care little. I picked my wife up at Tivvy Parkway, where a few tumbleweeds blowing across the deserted car park would not have looked out of place. She told me she had a carriage to herself from Cheltenham, and the Temple Meads had an eerie ghostly feel to it. Meanwhile, our nephew (who works in health care) and his wife have tested positive for the virus. Both are recovering well, although they haven't enjoyed it.

I don't buy that argument.  Why is there no restriction on the evening peak then?  A few weeks ago I got caught up in the afternoon school run and the buses that I used were completely packed out.

The comment from my Brother in Law to pensioner opening was that it was a cynical attempt to infect the whole cohort.

Morning commuter peak - 07:00 to 08:15
Morning school run - 08:00 to 08:45
Afternoon school run - 15:00 to 16:00
Afternoon commuter peak - 16:30 to 18:00

Now - yer typical pensioner gets up early with plans for the day, has his or her breakfast and heads out for adventures.   Come the middle of the day, she or he is headed back to base to watch the antiques toad show, ripping point, and the chaste.

So - if uncontrolled by financial inducement, said pensioner will overlap with people headed for work and kids headed for school, but will be home long before the rest head home.  Thus the morning restrictions, but there's no real need in the evening.

I can understand why you might not want to buy that argument, but it is the same one that the railways use outside London and Birmingham (and perhaps other places I dom't know about).

Off peak tickets valid after 0930 (unless otherwise stated in the restriction code) but no corresponding evening peak restriction.

I've got this all wrong, haven't I?

Bus passes in Dorset for older people valid before 09.30 from Monday.

First Dorset will be running a Saturday service on weekdays, excluding the Crewkerne-Bridport service which runs the normal weekday service as it is not booked to run on Saturdays.

The history of the bus pass was never operational but political.

When they first started in London it was bus only 0930-16.30.  The peak evening restriction soon ended as it was unworkable.
Next Bus pass holders could buy a 20p blue ticket for any underground journey after 9.30. Not valid on BR
Next free travel on the Underground after 9.30
Next free travel on the buses before 9.30
Next free travel on underground before 9.30
As the DLR and Trams introduced so the concession was extended
Free travel on BR after 9.30. Freedom Pass born.

What drove all these changes? The GLC and it's elections as the GLC changed hands between Tory and Labour promising pensioners more concessions. When Boris came in everything had gone so he gave 60-65 year olds free travel as the pension age for women was rising up to the men's 65.

I wonder if this new round of concessions outside London is a out of the extra money for buses that has been given.

Because councils outside London rarely changed hands pensioners did not get these concessions and why diverse areas such as Torbay and Thurrock still have bus passes from 9.30

Question about free London transport with pensioners bus pass.

The free transport,does it apply to bus pass's issued outside of London?

The "Freedom Pass" - from London Travel Watch - is described as follows (((here)) (https://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/consumer_advice/concessionary_passes))


so, no, you can't have one if you don't live in London ... but that page also says


So you can use it on buses ... but NOT on underground, overground, National Rail in London, trams, river buses, or on the Emirates Cablecar.

We are all typical, but some are more typical than others

I think I am right in that  pensioner in Thurrock living near Lakeside cannot get on their own local bus before 9.30 but could use the TFL 370 to Upminster and Romford.

Problems arise on London buses because often the drivers don't know the rules and the machines flash up red when an out of London bus pass is presented.  Had this problem at Upminster when going on a 370.

Thank you grahame for the reply on London bus's

90% or more of my passengers today were senior pass holders. They were going for a walk round town in the majority and some shopping. Talking to Colleagues this Was a common pattern. The exact group that have been told to stay in as they are highest risk.

Torbay Council and Devon County Council allowing pensioners to travel free on buses before 9.30. Looks like it is going nationwide.

False non-equivalence! These are the same problem. We are all being told to socially distance, the elderly are being told to self-isolate; and then encouraged onto buses where they will be sitting in close proximity, touching shiny surfaces and breathing each other's exhalations. They will then walk around town, into frequently crowded shops and so on. I have a feeling it will all be irrelevant in a week or two anyway as we'll be on lockdown like France, Italy, Germany, and a dozen other places from California to the Philippines.

But presumably food shops will still be open. Bit difficult if walking is not your strong point so buses are necessary.

Necessary for necessary purposes.

A good argument I accept, but I have been observing the reality of the situation out of my window this morning.

Our local town service has gone to a Saturday timetable from today, and buses have passed by my window at 0855, 0955 and 1055 (just gone past now).

Evey one of the buggers was empty.