Great Western Coffee Shop

The Department for Transport recently rejected an online petition calling for the concessionary bus travel scheme for people of State Pension age to include free country-wide train journeys. However, it was asked by the Petitions Committee - the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system - to provide a revised response to the proposal.

Some 21,892 people from across the UK signed the online petition, created and posted by Ronald John Bradbur, proposing pensioners be given free rail travel to “enhance their mental wellbeing” and allow them to meet up with others or venture further afield on a day out.

The Department for Transport has now given a revised response, but unfortunately for the thousands of people waiting on the update, there has been no change in its initial decision. The proposal to extend the concessionary bus pass to include free train journeys has still been rejected.

“The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age, currently sixty-six, within England.

“Local concessionary travel costs around £1 billion annually and any changes to the minimum statutory scheme, such as free travel on rail, would therefore need to be carefully considered for their impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.”

However, it added local authorities in England have the power to go beyond their statutory obligations, such as offering free travel on rail as part of the ENCTS pass.

It highlighted how operators in 11 out of 84 travel concession authority areas in England offered some form of discounted rail travel for the older person's concessionary pass.

Does anyone know if the ENTCS use, WSB-WEY facility is still operated? There is no mention of the scheme locally that I have seen recently.

From the Daily Record (https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/free-bus-train-travel-petition-31296532)


The response explains


I wonder if they count Wiltshire, where an ENCTS can be used to claim the same discount as a Railcard off train fares to and from Westbury to(wards) Weymouth only.   

At a time when revenue from fares is 30% down on pre COVID levels, the question has to be...............ooooooooo's gonna pay for it?

As a continuation scheme, it was unfunded.  The income generated from the (few) tickets sold under the scheme was money that the rail industry would not otherwise have received and it was zero net cost when the performance was analysed.  It was/is ONLY on offer between Westbury and Weymouth and between Swindon and Worcester due to the lack of parallel bus routes to those lines.

Now that is interesting, especially the zero cost bit.  Makes one wonder where else this model could be applied as a promotion tool.

That is what it became. From the study period, it was concluded that the extra income generated made it worthwhile to continue, though I recall the numbers where so low as to make that conclusion statistically unsound.