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How important is your Bus Pass/Freedom Pass to you
Profile | Posted by | Options | Post Date |
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maggiewinchester | Report | 1 Mar 2014 23:49 |
"elderly and disabled passengers could lose vital bus services because of cuts in government funding, councils in England warn." |
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Von | Report | 1 Mar 2014 23:23 |
I have a freedom pass and I use it all the time to travel into London and on local buses. |
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Andysmum | Report | 1 Mar 2014 22:30 |
Ours are valid all day and, Ann, the Council doesn't enter into it. The money is paid by a government dept. direct to the bus company. My ticket always says where I've said I'm going, although I suppose other companies might try fiddling it. |
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AnninGlos | Report | 1 Mar 2014 21:58 |
We can't use ours before 0930 weekdays |
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Joeva | Report | 1 Mar 2014 20:09 |
Rarely use mine, maybe only six times a year. |
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+++DetEcTive+++ | Report | 1 Mar 2014 19:39 |
Although it may vary from English area to area, the bus pass can only be applied for when the person reaches female retirement age. That is being escalated until parity with the males 65 is reach in 2018. |
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nameslessone | Report | 1 Mar 2014 17:20 |
My OH doesn't drive so his bus pass is wonderful - no more driving him wherever he wants to go - it was bad enough having to drive the kids around! |
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Inky1 | Report | 1 Mar 2014 17:12 |
I applied for mine as soon as I was 60. At that time they could not be used before 09:30. So I also bought a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card. Used that to go to work (06:30) and the Freedom Pass to get home. On average the Oyster fares cost the same as the petrol for the previous car journeys. Therefore some money from me to London Transport - and less pollution from my car. |
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AnninGlos | Report | 1 Mar 2014 17:05 |
Yes, and if you don't watch them they fiddle the council. Several times my ticket has said either Gloucester or Cheltenham when we have been going home and getting off half way. |
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Andysmum | Report | 1 Mar 2014 16:52 |
I live in Scotland and both OH and I have bus (and ferry) passes. We are fairly close to the village but 15 miles from the nearest town. I use the car to do a weekly shop, but am happy to use the bus (hourly) if I don't have much to carry. |
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AnninGlos | Report | 1 Mar 2014 15:29 |
We have an excellent service here to either Cheltenham or Gloucester and we do use our passes at least once most weeks sometimes twice. The buses have a large proportion of bus pass holders on, going into both towns. I suspect that while in town, most people like us spend some money, even if on a cup of coffee. If we didn't have passes, even though we are not on the bread line, we would not be able to travel to town twice a week so in the long run the local economy would suffer. And the car parks would be full and pollution from traffic worse. |
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JustJohn | Report | 1 Mar 2014 15:11 |
That told me, Roy :-D :-D :-D Yes, I do remember rates being ridiculously high in Sheffield, and also in Wolverhampton. It was half rates for my brother just over border of Wolverhampton in Salop. His side of road - £400. Other side an exorbitant £800!! Shock!! Thought Sheffield was about same as W'ton, to be honest. |
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Porkie_Pie | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:58 |
I think that as a bus pass is part of pensioner benifits then it should stay that way, |
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OneFootInTheGrave | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:46 |
My nearest town is Orpington which is about 3 miles from where I live and because of my mobility problems I tend to use my mobility scooter to get there, bus pass is handy for getting to appointments at local main hospital though, however it is no use for appointments at specialist hospitals like Kings College Hospital, due to my mobility problems I need to use a taxi and they cost about £30 each way :-( |
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jax | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:23 |
Not sure that interest rates on mortgages has been reduced to help younger people? |
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JustJohn | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:17 |
Jonesey wrote "Personally although I have a bus pass I have used it for travel only once. I have made more use of it as Photo ID when making largish purchases with my credit card." |
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wisechild | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:15 |
Our Spanish bus passes entitle us to around 60% off the full fare. I don´t use mine much in the winter. There aren´t many places to go in Menorca!!!, but in summer I use it most days, especially when we have friends staying. We have a car, but find that with the price of petrol & parking charges, it´s cheaper to use the bus. |
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Annx | Report | 1 Mar 2014 14:08 |
It said in our local paper that the funding to our council for concessionary fares had been cut by a third. If they do away with the concession altogether would they lose the other 2 thirds.........or is the money not ringfenced and will be swallowed up with the rest that they waste on gimmicky ideas? |
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Jonesey | Report | 1 Mar 2014 13:58 |
Personally although I have a bus pass I have used it for travel only once. I have made more use of it as Photo ID when making largish purchases with my credit card. |
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OneFootInTheGrave | Report | 1 Mar 2014 13:55 |
+++DetEcTive+++ I tend to agree that means testing would probably cost more than it would save, and I think that if they took pensioners bus passes away - there would be very few buses running between say 9.00am and 4.30pm as there would be very few passengers between those times ;-) |
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