No free travel on this bus route
The image of a happy silver-haired couple boarding a bus should have been the perfect illustration for a leaflet on free bus travel for Lincolnshire pensioners.
But red-faced council bosses have now been forced to admit that, in reality, those smiling pensioners would have had to pay full price to use the route pictured on the leaflet.
-
Tony and Janet Howsam with the leaflet promoting free travel.
The leaflet – advertising the Lincoln to Sheffield bus – was distributed across Lincolnshire when the free bus pass scheme was introduced in April.
But pensioners have been told they cannot use their passes on the route because it is exempt from the programme.
Tony and Janet Howsam, of Roman Wharf, off Carholme Road, Lincoln, tried to board a bus to Sheffield run by Lincolnshire firm Hunt's and said they were astonished to find they could not use their passes.
Mr Howsam (72) said: "We have used these passes everywhere – even up in the Lake District.
"But when we got on this bus, the driver said it would cost £8."
East Lindsey District Council spokesman James Gilbert , which produced the leaflets on behalf of councils across Lincolnshire, said: "The Lincoln to Sheffield route was part of the scheme at the time of printing the leaflet.
"Future print runs will use an updated photograph to reflect the change.
"The Lincoln to Sheffield route is a premium route and not a local bus route.
"Routes like this can be exempt from the scheme."
Jim Taylor, operations manager at Hunt's, said: "The amount of money we received did not cover the driver's wages."
Find out more about the bus pass scheme in Friday's Lincolnshire Echo
Comments
by Graham Lord, Cleethorpes
Friday, September 26 2008, 3:00PM
“I'll clarify the position as merely describing a bus service as "a premium run" is particularly ambiguous to say the least. Concessions may travel free of charge using their new-look bus passes provided the service on which they're travelling has been registered as a local bus service with the Traffic Commissioner. In return for registering a route, it is classed as a local bus service, for which subsidy for the fuel used can be claimed. As well as this, operators are legally obliged to offer free travel to concessions, and to claim this money back, too.
Operators cannot register their bus route with the Traffic Commissioner as a "local service" on occasions when there is a distance greater than 15 miles between any two bus stops; here it is classified as an "express service" - an accurate description since 15 miles betwixt two stops can hardly be classed as local.
Express services cannot be registered as "local" and therefore do not receive subsidy for the fuel they use and also therefore do not have to accept the free concessionary passes.
In the situation with the Hunts bus service, this route was registered as a local bus as end-to-end no bus stop was more than 15 miles from the next, despite the length of its route. With the advent of the free concessionary scheme operators are concerned that they're not receiving a fare reimbursement rate from the local authorities for each free journey made and this is forcing some to de-register their services with the Traffic Commissioner - even though they are classed as "local" and to lose out on the fuel subsidy, to ensure all passengers pay a fare.
If local authorities had been given sufficient funding for this scheme from central government, enough money would be available to ensure operators are properly reimbursed; as it is for every free journey made, operators in Lincolnshire receive only 60-65% of the fare; before when concessions paid half-fare the other half was given by the local authority - thus operators received 100% back.
With an effective 35% loss per concessionary traveller, it's forcing some operators to de-register perfectly legitimate, 'registerable' routes to ensure that every passenger pays 100% of the adult fare. Hunts' Skegness-Sheffield service is just one example.
This practice isn't particularly widespread as operators generally prefer to accept the free concessionary travel so that they can receive subsidy on the fuel they use for that route.”