Why should over 60s get free bus travel?

12:18pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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Why do all people over the age of 60 get free bus travel within England? I am a full time student who does not earn any money and I have to save up and pay for my bus pass to get to and from college. This is crazy as there is a high number of over 60s who have access to a car and would never use a bus pass untill they were unable to drive.

Another point I would like to raise regarding this is the new bus service timetables across Halesowen and other parts of the West Midlands as I live at the bottom end of the Squirrels Estate there are "NO" Travel West Midlands buses which serve the Squirrels Estate anymore and if I want to use a bus to get me close to my home I have to use the 417 which is a Ludlows bus company which my bus pass doesn't allow me to use on Ludlows buses unless I pay more. Why do over 60s get this for free?

The person who is incharge of all this should have a good think because if you are going to take off bus services due to "a limited amount we have to be careful of what we spend it on", "the authority only had a limited amount of money to spend on socially necessary services" - these quotes were from the news article "Hundreds opposing shake-up of buses" (May 1 2008) and were said by a spokesperson from Centro in the last three paragraphs.

Well if there are insufficent funds then why give all over 60s free bus passes? Why can't they pay like the rest of us so there is enough money in the system for sufficient buses to serve our local communities A Billingham, Via email