Bus Passes

[Twocky61]

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[Twocky61]

Re: Bus Passes



Years ago OAP's had half fare bus passes

Nowadays they have free travel bus passes

Also disabled (physically/mentally) have them like me

It is possible to travel from Lands End to Berwick on Tweed (the Scottish border) and back

An old guy did this over a few weeks. You just have to work out all the bus route connections

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

Yes, I have one as well, and no, I am not going to do a selfie with mine either. I am not going to too much detail on here but because of what happened to me in the past (Asperger Syndrome, anxiety, depression are three of them), as well medical assessments, GPs' examinations etc, they gather enough evidence to prove that I was eligible for a pass. They realised that I needed it.

The disability ones have an orange stripe as illustrated above, and the pensioners ones have a blue stripe in that place. I have always associated the phrase "bus pass" originally with elderly people, mostly because my father was getting on in years and had one himself.

They were officially introduced on 1st April 2008 (not an April Fools' joke of course), and I got mine from the start, although it was stolen in a burglary later that month, but I had it replaced than goodness. However, when it expired they said that I needed another assessment and I had difficulty getting to the place because a relative was supposed to take me there in her car. In the mean time I had to get an ordinary NCTX pass which only allowed me travel around Nottingham, until I moved from the inner-city area to the suburb where due to some incident I managed to get a disability pass again.

The irony is that travelling by bus is rather soothing and relaxing - just what the doctor ordered if you like! So the pass was such an ideal thing for me when it came to going out and about, and I can understand that it can be a lifeline bot for pleasure and for general living. The cost of owning a car (including driving lessons, road tax, petrol, and so on) would be beyond my own budget and so bus travel was a lot cheaper and convenient in the long run.

And there some great bus services around the country as well - staying in Milton Keynes last year I came across the X5 bus service which has National Express-alike coaches but unlike NEx coaches, I can use my pass on it, and it goes from Oxford to Cambridge more times than the annual Boat Race does! Others include the number 1 from Penzance to Land's End as well - see the Land's End thread for more details!

I hope that the free travel across England will be eventually extended to the whole of the United Kingdom - I feel sorry for those who live in Cumbria or Northumberland and have to pay to travel 50 or so miles north, likewise those who live in Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wiltshire or Bristol and have to pay to travel the same distance west.

[80sChav]

Re: Bus Passes

A great thread you have made here George, mate .... it is full of interesting points and the like i think

I first got my 1st Buss Pass for College in 1995 after moving back to where we originaly lived - and i think the price was 30/40p or so per journey and then of course by 2008, the days of 2popping into Town and hoping you'd just saved 40p for the Bus Journey/or that you had over-spent ever so marginaly was over" thankfully as opposed to me walking instead often with Heavy Shopping ags

The the Trains came into play and you could use it on those (and still can in my region) as in a select other few. I shall not say where I live but let's say I am in the region of Teevision where Tony Nutall atracted plenty of attention a few years back (and this covers a fairly large region from Kings Lynn, Skegness and Grantham in the south of it's broadcasting remit to Settle/Skipton in the North West remit and Scarbrorough/Middlesbrough very North remitt's and Saddleworth direct Wsst and the Peak District South, but lesser so, so it is very varying but is fair to say his exploits went out and attracted a wide audiance

You are right about the Milton Keynes- Cambridge/Oxford Coaches indeed, I'd like to try this one indeed one day, but it's fair to see we have similar too in my region (within reasonable earshot of home), though not to csch exiot places of History and Hertiage like Cambridge and Oxford (or Oxbridge to be Regal etc about things)

As well I can recall briefly around 2008 to 2011 showing your BusPas enabled reduced fare's on national express, which was also great but failed to last due to austerty etc

80sChav

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

A great thread you have made here George, mate .... it is full of interesting points and the like i think

Twoky61 started this thread, not me.

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

Another thing is while I was in Milton Keynes last year, instead of getting the National Express coach back to Nottingham as I originally intended to, there was a bus service that I found, and it went from MK via Northampton and onto Leicester, and so I was only 20 miles away from home, and two buses later after arriving in Leicester, I was back in Nottingham before the NEx coach and an hour earlier as well! And it cost me very little if you know what I mean. An inspector asked to see my pass like he did with the other passengers, but no matter.

[Twocky61]

Re: Bus Passes

The good thing about these English Concessionary bus passes is, you can travel all of England, even though they are not valid in Wales & Scotland

So for retired people, or people with disabilities, whether physically or mentally, it gets those people out of the house & not watching Jeremy Kyle lol

A brilliant route, of the many there are, is the X53 First Bus from Poole to Exeter through the Jurassic Coast through Lyme Regis, Very few paying passengers on that route

[Twocky61]

Re: Bus Passes

Council's, pay the bus companies something like 90p per journey, whether the minimum actual fare is £1.80 (Yellow Buses Bournemouth fares are £1.80/£2.20/£2.60 for short, medium & long 'hops')

So for example, the X1 Oxford to Cambridge (single fare) is a tenner, so Stage Coach lose £9.10 per passenger

Council's are having to make savings; which they are, by paying bus operators only 90p per journey

This can not be the case indefinitely; bus operators will withdraw routes, where there are very few passengers paying a fare

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

As you say, the X5 (rather than X1) that goes from Oxford to Cambridge - as well as the convivence of saving money, one probably wouldn't be able to do that route via National Express unless it was via London and had to change coaches.

I used to enjoy the Trans Peak service that used to go from Nottingham, via Derby, Bakewell, Matlock, Buxton, Stockport and up to Manchester (following the A6 after the A52), and that was a similar bus service. I believe that it still exists but the route now starts from Derby, which means that Nottingham people such as myself would have to travel to Derby instead. Mind you, there are so many bus services that go from Nottingham to Derby, mostly run by Trent Barton that it was probably the main reason while it didn't start from Nottingham - the problem with Derby is that you can get back to Nottingham but not go further afield too much!

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

The postman (bless him) has just sent me my renewal form for my pass as it expires on 30th April - filled in the relevant parts that I can do, but I need to get my GP to fill in one of the pages, so I will probably telephone and wait six weeks for an appointment. I assume that this is the norm with most councils and NHS practices? I assume that is what Twocky also needs to do when the date of expiry comes close?

Need to photocopy various documents, so a local library should do that: utility bill or bank statements; birth certificate or NHS card; DWP correspondence from the last year; and a passport sized photograph (which I had them done in a local Boots last time around).

I have travelled as far as Cornwall with mine, so I hope that I won't lose it - I hope to travel to Dorset with my new one in August so I hope that the bureaucrats won't let me down with this.

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

I have sent it off and hopefully I will get it renewed in a week's time, touch wood.

[George 1978]

Re: Bus Passes

My pass has been officially been renewed for the next five years.