Rocky Road to Reality

Free travel: coming to a bus near you – this week! But pensioners may need to wait till 2008 before a truly national scheme emerges.

There wasn’t much in this year’s budget for elderly people. It was somewhat different this time last year, when chancellor Brown surprised us all with free travel. Now, free travel’s a reality and on Saturday 1 April 2006, provided you qualify in terms of age and residency (and for those younger than 60, disability) – and you have your free bus pass – local bus travel becomes free of charge, a move that bus operators should not and haven’t underestimated.

Sceptics argue that this is a last attempt to meet passenger growth targets – free travel will grow the market. Other equally sceptical people feel that it was a means of appeasing the so-called grey vote. If that was the case, why not sooner to an election? Why not something in this month’s budget, as well?

Meanwhile, there are a few problems to iron out. Free travel is locally based – and there are some people on Saturday who will find that they can’t travel as far as they’d hoped or expected. Local papers have reported peculiarities and quirks with individual schemes. For example, some authorities can afford district-based schemes only (e.g. Plymouth), others have joined with neighbours (Poole-Bournmeouth), while others have joined in county or regional schemes (“Counties that Used to be Avon” or CUBA).

There’s also confusion about travel times (with some extending the entitlement) and modes (buses, trains and trams will be free in Greater Manchester).

29 authorities have declared the government hasn’t given sufficient funding in next year’s settlement. The government’s allocated £350mil for free travel, distributed on a population-based formula.

Meanwhile, the government has announced plans to introduce a national English scheme but it won’t be in place till 2008. A national scheme might be expected to save on administration but it’s expected to cost an extra £250mil in actual travel reimbursement.

For the record, from 1 April 2006, Scotland’s scheme becomes national rather than local. Wales’ was national at its launch in 2002.