Great Western Coffee Shop

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33195093

My parents (75 & 72) use buses all the time, even though they still both drive, and often use the train to come up this way when they visit.

I live in Boston Spa (the nearest Wetherby line ripped up by the good doctor) and could go nowhere without local buses and the excellent Leeds to the East Coast buses (Coastliner). The Coastliner buses, very busy, seem to be used exclusively by over 60s, and a few students. The Boston Spa to Tadcaster, with a sporadic timetable, is almost exclusively over 60s 

No doubt it is equally as true to say that 'many people aged under 65 do not use public transport'!

Should every commuter into London decide to travel by train/ bus/ underground (or even Boris's aerial fun way) I guess the system would collapse under the numbers. I choose London as it is the one part of the UK where large numbers do use public transport, but by no means all.

Therefore the statement from the report is stating the obvious.

There is already a school of thought (with which I don't agree) that argues against universal bus passes as OAPs fill up the buses "free" denying access to fare paying customers, especially in the mornings.

This is frequently argued in Plymouth where buses are often crammed with schoolchildren and OAPs in the mornings.

I was at a local meeting the other day where the head of commissioning for older people care, support and accommodation (did you know we had one of those?  ;D ) was launching a publicity document telling us all about the care of older people in the community and turning to pages 42 onwards (about travel) it told us that older people can use local buses for free at any time they like between 09:30 and 23:00.

I couldn't help feeling that makes a presumption that there's a local but actually running where they want to go and at the time they want to go. 

May not have the wording totally right - not enough document copies to go around but it very specifically suggested the travel options were there - it was "any time they like" and not "an any time there's a bus".

One of the reasons that some people rarely use public transport remains that it's not easily available when where (and to the destination they want), and that information about it is hard to find.

If they're on the buses at the same time as schoolchildren in the morning then surely they'd be paying fill fare. Concessionary passes aren't usually valid until 0930.

To be fair, it's not suggested that the children and the pensioners are cluttering up the bus at the same time in the morning - merely that they are both present during the morning.  :)

09:30 is the standard national validity, but some local authorities extend this to allow earlier travel. Plymouth City Council have some modest extensions listed on http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/buspass (http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/buspass) - if you're registered blind or over 80 then you can travel before 09:30.

That's not going to involve big volumes of patronage.