Council should compensate for thousands of lost bus journeys
2nd June 2008
Alan Whitehead MP has called on Southampton City Council to take extra measures to catch up for the 2 months of free travel lost because of the delays to the delivery of the pensioner bus pass scheme.
Over 40,000 over 60s in Southampton were eligible for free nationwide bus travel in Southampton from April 1st, but due to a lack of preparation in Southampton the passes are now arriving more than 2 months late.
Each Southampton pensioner has lost over 800 hours of potential travel time outside of Southampton over the last two months.
Dr Whitehead said:
“I’m glad Southampton pensioners now finally have the bus pass they were entitled to 2 months ago, but they should never have been put in this position in the first place. Almost no other authority in England has taken this long to get their passes out. If proper preparations had been made over last year, these delays could have been avoided.
“If the Council is serious about being green, which I think they should be, then they must take steps to improve bus use in the wake of the thousands of bus journeys lost over the last 2 months. They could start this right now by pledging not to cut eligibility for Southampton’s extended bus pass scheme for the next 2 years.
“As a way of apologising to those affected, they should also announce a moratorium on further bus route cuts, and they should send a clear message to bus companies that they will face much tougher regulation over punctuality when the Local Transport Bill comes into law.”
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More information
- The ‘over 800 hours of travel time lost per pensioner’ comes from taking the number of hours of free travel per day (13.5 hours, excluding weekends and bank holidays where it is more) and multiplying that by 60 (the approximate number of days pensioners have had to wait for their pass). 13.5 x 60 = 810 hours.
- Eligibility for statutory concessionary travel in England (outside London) is set out in the Transport Act 2000 and this remains in force. Southampton City Council has historically operated an extended scheme covering those on the medium and lower levels of disability benefit, as the Transport Act 2000 only covers those in receipt of the highest level of disability benefit. It was this extended, local scheme that the Conservative administration proposed abolishing in their 2008 budget consultation.