Free bus and rail travel for the oldies from next April ??

Ken68

Have just packed up driving, Margaret, sight not what it was.
And a hiring is out .(over 70)

margaretclare

Ken68 wrote: »

Have just packed up driving, Margaret, sight not what it was.
And a hiring is out .(over 70)

Oh-oh. Didn't realise we couldn't hire a car after 70.

We'll hang on to the car as long as possible in that case!

We've both just had our eyes sorted out - 4 cataract operations between us!!!

Margaret

Ken68

Surprising really, can smell the exhausts more now walking and biking than when in the car.
Busing aint for everyone, but Tesco put one on for all round the town, that gets me to the centre for King's Lynn and then the world.

$"£!$&^*"$!&*(

LimeLight wrote: »

The new national passes for elderly and disabled people will come out next April.

Local authorities will keep their existing free travel arrangements, but they will be available to use on all english local buses between the times of 9am and 11pm.

I'll get the link when i get home tonight.

worth adding that the 9am to 11pm time restraint is the actual law however local authorities are allowed within their own budgets to go beyond the specified times. worth contacting your local borough/county council to see about travel within your area.

Farway

nathanp wrote: »

worth adding that the 9am to 11pm time restraint is the actual law however local authorities are allowed within their own budgets to go beyond the specified times. worth contacting your local borough/county council to see about travel within your area.

Currently mine is anytime, which is handy as I am often out before 9 so hopee they continue it, I would like to be out after 11pm but these days I am often in bed by then :rotfl:

Jake'sGran

Biggles wrote: »

I'm a fella but don't understand that. If it's taken 12 years to do 50k, it must have at least another 12 years left in it. That's about £40 a year at your valuation. Motoring doesn't come much cheaper than that!

Thank goodness someone agrees. We never go anywhere now which is why there is only 50k on the clock but for some obscure reason my OH says we will have lots of interesting trips out if only we had a new Mazda 6.

$"£!$&^*"$!&*(

Farway wrote: »

Currently mine is anytime, which is handy as I am often out before 9 so hopee they continue it, I would like to be out after 11pm but these days I am often in bed by then :rotfl:

Lucky for you!

Ken68

Free bus passes should be conditional on handing in your driving licence. One or the other. Free the roads up a bit.

margaretclare

Ken68 wrote: »

Free bus passes should be conditional on handing in your driving licence. One or the other. Free the roads up a bit.

Some of the women who have free passes now have never had a driving licence. Some of the men who have them only learned to drive in the Army. Many of that generation never thought they'd ever have a car of their own. I didn't myself - where I grew up it was only the farmers' daughters of my age who drove a car. DH has driven since he was a teenager in the 1950s. I've held a full licence since 1971, but I know that there are many women my age who've never driven and never thought they would.

So if the free pass was conditional on handing in your driving licence, it would exclude many women.

I am hanging on to my licence as long as possible - it's too convenient. Next thing might be another dash up the M1, my daughter fell over at work recently and - to cut a long story short - is looking at revision of both her hip replacements within a few weeks. She's 46 now and had both hips replaced when she was 35.

To do that journey by public transport would be: bus to the local station, theoretically free, about a mile. Train to London, tube across London, train to Leeds, bus to the hospital she'll be in, then to stay somewhere, Travelodge or similar. Not a prospect that appeals. You can imagine how we prefer a 250-mile drive to an exhausting journey like that. And only the smallest part, the first leg, home to station, would be free!

I have some 'female problems' surgery coming up probably within this month and once that's sorted we'll be going up to see her. Notwithstanding the problems of parking at the hospital, and the cost, it's just too darned convenient to be able to hop into the car, not to wait to be ferried to and fro by hospital transport, all the rest of it.

Margaret

Ken68

Hand in your licence if you have a licence, otherwise free anyway, and if you on pills, perhaps shouldn't be driving, have a look at 'side effects'. This product may cause dizziness nausea, vomitting is what I read.
Anyway if you are committed not to give up cars, you won't need a bus pass.