DEPARTMENT FOR
TRANSPORT News Release (120) issued by The Government News Network
on 18 September 2007
Transport
Secretary Ruth Kelly today unveiled the new pass that will give
older and disabled people free off-peak bus travel across England
from 1st April, 2008.
Currently, people aged 60 and over and eligible disabled people
are entitled to free off-peak bus travel within their own local
authority area. But from April 2008 the Government will invest up
to an extra £250m each year to extend the scheme to include
off-peak local bus travel anywhere in England.
The new passes will also incorporate ITSO 'smartcard'
technology to boost the roll out of 'smart ticketing'.
This will help minimise fraud and ensure that the number of
journeys made by pass-holders are accurately recorded for
reimbursement purposes between local authorities and bus
operators. In areas where buses are not yet fitted with smartcard
readers the cards can still be shown to the driver as a
traditional 'flash' card upon boarding.
Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said:
"We have already seen how popular concessionary fares are.
Bus use in England rose by 4% in the year after we introduced
free, off-peak local travel. Now we are extending their
entitlement, millions of older and disabled people will be able
to use their passes while visiting friends and family anywhere in
England as well as to access local services."
"We hope that allowing eligible passengers to use their
passes across local boundaries will continue to encourage even
more people to get the most from the bus services available
across the country."
"By introducing smartcard technology from the outset we are
paving the way for full smart ticketing across the country. This
would speed up boarding, cut fraud and open up the possibility of
using the same pass to access a range of other local services such
as libraries and leisure facilities."
Commenting on the scheme, Alan Burnett, senior policy officer at
Help the Aged, said:
"Millions of older and disabled people rely on local bus
services. From April, they will be able to save money when they
cross local boundaries or visit friends and family in other parts
of England."
The Passenger Transport Executive Group (PTEG) welcomed the
decision to make the pass a smartcard. Neil Scales, director
general of Merseytravel and PTEG spokesman on smartcards, said:
"Smartcard ticketing offers the prospect of greater
convenience for passengers and lower administration costs for
local authorities, operators and ultimately the taxpayer. "
"We look forward to working with the DfT and with bus
operators to realise the full potential of the national
concessionary smartcard-as a
precursor to much wider
application of public transport smartcards in
the years to come."
Steven Salmon, director of policy development at the
Confederation of Passenger Transport UK, said:
"Operators will be ready to welcome pass-holders from all
over England from 1 April. The Government's decision to make
the passes 'smart' could help authorities and operators
to offer fast, friendly and efficient services for everyone."
An image of the new pass for older people is attached.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. Currently, people aged 60 and over and eligible disabled
people in England are entitled to free off-peak bus travel within
the local authority area in which they live. This full waiver of
the fare, replacing the previous half fare entitlement, was
introduced by the Government in April 2006.The concession applies
between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, and all day weekends and bank holidays.
2. Some existing local concessionary travel schemes in England
include travel into neighbouring local authorities, but provision
varies across the country and could be discontinued at any time.
The Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 makes it a statutory
entitlement, for the first time, for eligible people to travel
outside their local authority area, anywhere in England, for free,
by local bus from 1 April 2008. The existing timings remain unchanged.
3. Local authorities are currently able to issue concessionary
passes to their own design. These vary across England with some
authorities already issuing ITSO smartcards with strong fraud
prevention characteristics. At the other extreme some current
passes have no photos and no expiry date. Because bus drivers
across England next year will have to recognise the entitlement of
any eligible pass holder, irrespective of which authority issued
the pass, from 1 April 2008 all passes will have to conform to a
specification set out in regulations. These will set out the
physical design, including a new requirement that all passes must
have photos and expiry dates, and also ensure that all passes are
ITSO smartcards.
4. In London, Freedom Passes will be re-stickered with the new
national concessionary travel logo so that they are recognisable
across the country from April 2008. They will be fully re-issued
to comply with the standard specification from 2010. Discussions
are ongoing to convert the London Oyster system to accept ITSO smartcards.
5. Smartcards have a number of advantages over traditional
paper-based passes. When used on smart readers, they are highly
resistant to fraudulent replication. They can also help to speed
up boarding, helping to reduce bus journey times. And in addition
to use as concessionary travel passes, smartcards could be used
for commercial ticketing on other transport services and
additional services at local authorities' discretion, such as
allowing access to leisure or library services.
6. ITSO is a national smartcard specification developed by
industry and the Government. Using ITSO helps to ensure wide
compatibility as the ITSO specification is protected by Crown
Copyright and available to a wide range of users. ITSO-based
smartcards are already being used for concessionary bus travel
throughout Scotland and in some parts of England, and are being
introduced on some parts of the rail network. For more information
about ITSO visit http://www.itso.org.uk.
7. Concessionary travel is a devolved policy area. Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland already operate their own schemes. The
Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 includes a power to allow, via
regulations in the future, for mutual recognition of concessionary
bus passes across the UK, and the Government had initial
discussions with the devolved administrations about the inclusion
of this power last year.
8. The measures in the Concessionary Bus Travel Act do not apply
to coach services. The existing, separate scheme for concessionary
half-fares on scheduled coach services introduced in May 2003 will
continue unchanged.
Public Enquiries: 020 7944 8300
Department for Transport
Website: http://www.dft.gov.uk