Has the policy of concessionary bus travel for older people in Britain been successful?

doi:10.1016/j.cstp.2014.05.001

Case Studies on Transport Policy

Volume 2, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 81-88

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2014.05.001 Get rights and content

Highlights

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There is a policy of offering free bus travel to all older people in Britain.
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It was introduced in stages to achieve social objectives.
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Bus use by older people has increased as a result.
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Surveys show that it has increased social inclusion and improved wellbeing.
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The scheme has been as successful, but not as successful as some studies suggest.

Abstract

Older people in Britain are entitled to free off-peak travel by bus over the whole country in which they live. The introduction of the policy was a political decision with the stated objectives of increasing public transport usage by older people, improving their access to services and increasing social inclusion. The objective of this paper is to examine the available evidence to see whether these objectives have been realised. The paper also explores whether there have been other benefits for older people and for wider society. It is concluded that the objectives have been met to a large extent, but that many of the impacts might have happened anyway and that the impacts are probably less than many of the studies claim.

Introduction

In Britain, older people are entitled to receive a pass that enables them to travel anywhere in their country of residence by bus in the off-peak without the need to pay. The scheme was introduced in three stages without significant analysis into the likely impacts. The objectives of introducing the scheme were social with the aim of improving the lives of older people. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the objectives have been met.

In the next section, the evolution of the scheme is outlined and the objectives summarised. Then the evidence on the impacts of the policy is examined to see the extent to which they have been met, followed by discussion about other benefits to older people and wider society. The extent to which the objectives have been met are discussed and conclusions drawn.

Section snippets

The concessionary travel scheme in Britain

Concessionary travel on buses has been offered to older people, blind people, children and disabled people since at least the early 1950s (Hansard, 1960). The proposal for a national minimum standard for concessionary travel for older people was put forward in the White Paper entitled ‘New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone’ (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998) which stated, in paragraph 4.81:

“We will introduce a national minimum standard for local authority

The impact of the scheme on public transport use by older people

The first objective identified above was to increase public transport usage by older people. As Table 1 shows, this seems to have happened. Since receiving their CTPs, 54% of the recipients are using buses more, 35% about the same and 10% less. The larger increases seem to be amongst those who used the bus often previously. The picture is more complex than this implies, because the comparison is with the situation before receiving the pass. For many of them, receiving the pass would have

The impact of the scheme on access to services for older people

One objective of the concessionary travel pass scheme was to improve the access of older people to services such as health care and shops. Table 5 shows the purposes of trips made by bus by CTP holders and other people. It can be seen that the passes are used for shopping by 81% of pass holders compared with 60% of others. Visiting health care facilities would be included under ‘Personal business’. This type of trips has been made by 34% of pass holders, compared with 20% of those who do not

The impact of the scheme on the social exclusion and wellbeing of older people

Reducing social isolation was mentioned as an objective of CTPs in the 1998 Transport White Paper (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998), while tackling social exclusion was suggested in the 2006 Budget speech (H.M. Treasury, 2006). Social isolation is about interacting with other people in the community: the Health White Paper ‘Healthy Lives, Healthy People’ (Department of Health, 2010) says, in Paragraph 1.41:

“Maintaining social networks, being part of a community

Wider impacts of CTPs

The various impacts of CTPs discussed above represent benefits that having a CTP have brought to the lives of older and disabled people. There are also some wider benefits to society of CTPs.

Hirst and Harrop (2011) found a number of their respondents in Manchester using their passes for voluntary work. Andrews (2011) found examples of how having a CTP helped to promote pass holder participation in society, such as working in the voluntary sector (some people surveyed had taken up voluntary

The effectiveness of the policy

In this section the extent to which the policy of offering concessionary travel to older people has been successful will be considered.

In the 1998 White Paper it was stated that the scheme would “… enable elderly people, especially those on low incomes, to continue to use public transport and to use it more often, improving their access to a range of basic necessities such as health care and shops and reducing social isolation”. It was shown in Section 3 that older people use the bus more than

Conclusions

The evidence presented in this paper suggests that CTPs have had a significant impact on the lives of older people and that the objectives set out in the three Government documents (Department of the Environment, 1998, H.M. Treasury, 2005, H.M. Treasury, 2006) have, to a large extent, been met: older people are using buses more, many of these trips are to shops and services, suggesting that their access to these has increased, many of those using the pass do not have access to a car, so these

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Citation Excerpt :
In terms of health and well-being, access to free public transport can reduce social exclusion in older age, contribute to life satisfaction and protect physical health (Green et al., 2014; Mackett, 2013, 2014; Webb et al., 2016). Although the actual benefits often remain intangible, research on the scheme's uptake highlights that ENCTS enjoys high levels of popularity among older residents (Mackett, 2014). Yet, these favourable accounts on ENCTS contrast with the experience of transport authorities, such as Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), the transport provider for the West Midlands Combined Authority.
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Has the policy of concessionary bus travel for older people in Britain been successful?

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

The concessionary travel scheme in Britain

The impact of the scheme on public transport use by older people

The impact of the scheme on access to services for older people

The impact of the scheme on the social exclusion and wellbeing of older people

Wider impacts of CTPs

The effectiveness of the policy

Conclusions

Transp. Policy

Soc. Sci. Med.

J. Transport Geogr.

Soc. Sci. Med.

Just the ticket? Exploring the contribution of free bus fares policy to quality of later life, a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The grey escape: investigating older people's use of the free bus pass

Transp. Plann. Technol.

Buses: Concessionary Fares, Commons Library Standard Note SN/BT/1499

The impact of free older persons’ bus pass on active travel and regular walking in England

Am. J. Public Health

Older People: Their Transport Needs and Requirements – Main Report

National Travel Survey

Annual Bus Statistics

Be Active: Be Healthy: A Plan for Getting the Nation Moving

Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England HMSO