Free bus fares for everyone

[tom3t0 10]

with regards to pensioners recently receiving free fares, the need to reduce CO2 levels and the ever increasing amount of traffic, would it not be the sensible option for bus services to be government run and free for all, as this would cut both traffic and CO2 levels, it would also help to make petrol last longer as a resource, the cost for this could be reecooperated through the massive increases in council tax. other results would be cleaner air in our town centres benefitting non smokers much more than the unworkable smoking ban. Or how about free student fares considering a state pension is greater than the maximum student loan (which is paid back with interest). Having spoken to oaps on the bus this seems to be the general consensus, surely this would be the same consensus for the working class

[youwhatref 10]

But who would operate the buses? They would have to come back under the local authorities. But this will never happen dueto the massive cost involved.

 

PPl dont wnat to give up their independance to sit next to some urine smelling chav and pay more council tax to do it (used urine as wouldn't allow **** )

[bigkev 10]

what a stupid question free bus fares for everyone it will never happen the bus companys are out to make money hence thats why the bus fares go up to line there fat wallets, do you think that the goverment would allow it when they with the scheming ways try to get more money out of us. free bus fare's what ever next free rail travel to any part of the country or free airline tickets not when you have got people like richard branson and virgin airlines he is not satisfied unless he is getting more money to put in his fat wallet. so lets ask this question who would pay for the new buses what we get every 10 years not the goverment but us by the bus fare's what we have to pay for and I can see in the next 10 years the all day saver what you get in south yorkshire for £3.50 will have gone up past the £6.00 mark, but here is one for you this all day saver what first does costs £3.50 but up in scotland and they have got first bus there all day saver costs £ 2.35 so how can scotland have cheap tickets but not us and before anybody jumps on me about this cheap all day saver I have just come back from scotland and I bought the all day saver, I went from glasgow all the way up to inverness for £2.35p now thats a bargin.

[Cyclone 10]

Not a biased poll at all then. Were you just not interested in the votes of people who though "No, that's a terrible idea"?

 

I can't use public transport to get to work (in a sensible time), so i rarely use it. I don't remember the last time I caught a bus.

Why should my tax subsidise the people who can and do use it?

[JoeP 11]

I currently work for a public transport organisation and I have a (reasonably) good bus service from home to town so I use it.

 

However, the buses are frequently unreliable around peak time, dirty, the drivers are surly, the style of driving often agressive and uncomfortable. These are NOT an issue of cost - these are issues of the operators not caring.

 

Encouraging people on to buses isn't just a matter of cost for the pssengers. Various studis of what's called 'price elasticity' in the past have shown that people are willing to pay a great deal more money for the convenience and comfort of using their own vehicle.

 

Until a bus service is constructed that meets the needs of commuters, people will continue to avoid using it, irrespective of price.

 

With regard to free transport for the elderley as an aside, can I ask 'Why?'

 

The 40p fare wasn't that bad. If you were trying to make a social point with dishing free fares out it would make more sense to give free travel to commuters to inner city jobs. That would allow you to start seeing the possibilities of getting people out of their cars and on to buses - if they won't go for free then you're not going to encourage people out of their cars by other means.

[artisan 10]

Back inthe sixties and seventies Sheffields bus service was excellent. You never waited more than about 10 minutes for a bus.

The idea was put forward then about free bus fares. It was estimated it would have put a ha'penny on the rates.

This idea was howled down by people saying it would send them bankrupt, and why should they susidise the lower orders etc, etc. You know the guff.

So that is why the service has got worse and worse, and dearer and dearer.

The people now complaining about how crap the service is, and how they have to use their cars everywhere, are probably the descendants of these people.

[hazel 11]

I think the free pensioners fares was give as a ploy by the the labour goverment to keep the gray vote under control. It was in last years budget, to start this April, to appease the older voters for a year or two.

hazel

[Internetowl 10]

it will probably work too ; the buses are full of them these days. I can't wait for the companies to suss out in bus 'bingo' and tea dances as you travel to really clean up Circular bus routes would be good too then they never need to get off either.

[LordChaverly 10]

Well, as Milton Friedman might say, there's no such thing as a free bus fare. My understanding is that it is the government which picks up the tab for over 60s bus travel. You will notice that bus drivers are expected to issue tickets to the over 60s and these details will be automatically recorded as receipts. So ultimately, it is the taxpayers who are paying for 'free bus fares'.

[timo 10]

As you know, Lord C, I am a Sheffielder currently exiled in a remote Lancastrian enclave . I recall how cheap the bus fares were in the beloved city of my birth in the early 1980s. One could literally travel miles for 10 pence. However, the caring, sharing junta of Generalisimo Blunkett hiked up the house rates to astronomical levels. Thus taking back with one hand that which they had given with the other.

[tom3t0 10]

Not a biased poll at all then. Were you just not interested in the votes of people who though "No, that's a terrible idea"?

 

I can't use public transport to get to work (in a sensible time), so i rarely use it. I don't remember the last time I caught a bus.

Why should my tax subsidise the people who can and do use it?

 

well you could have voted "as now" or "other"

with regards to the tax thing, the free buses would be available to you if implemented, or look at it from a different pov. more drivers off the road, more road for you.

[Cyclone 10]

available to me, to places where i've no wish to travel, thanks.

 

I have voted apparently, so (although I don't remember) it must have been as now. It is a biased poll though, no clearly negative option, multiple supporting options. It's how i'd do a poll if I wanted to geta particular response.