Letter: Travel concessions need a closer look

Bus companies should be asked one crucial question: how much does it cost to carry an additional "pensioner/passenger" between 9am and 4pm in an otherwise empty seat on a bus already subsidised by taxpayers?

The additional or marginal cost is NIL.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie

Poor transport options cost the public sector millions of pounds each year just through missed medical appointments. They also hamper both economic growth and older people's general wellbeing by preventing them from getting out and about to access local services and use local shops.

The Scotland-wide free bus travel scheme for people over 60 and disabled people has been very welcome, however it remains of little help for people who cannot access conventional buses because of mobility problems or because they live in an area poorly served by bus routes.

An integrated network of community transport would enable the participation of those older people in isolated rural communities who have most to gain from the scheme, and that's why Age Scotland will be calling on the next Scottish Government to extend the free bus travel scheme to include demand-responsive community transport for those who need it.

To enable this, Age Scotland would like to see savings of 40 million a year made by restricting eligibility to those of state pension age and ending its use by people commuting to and from their workplaces.

This would more than cover the estimated 7m it would cost to include demand-responsive community transport initiatives in the scheme and go a long way to ending the urban/rural divide that has plagued it since its inception.

David Manion

Age Scotland

Causewayside

Edinburgh

The national concessionary travel scheme should be reviewed but for, perhaps, different reasons than just cost.

Many will find it surprising that a scheme designed to help the vulnerable in our society has been deliberately set up to exclude 12,000 disabled people from benefitting.

The new Audit Scotland report quotes research carried out by our organisation that many disabled people from across Scotland are not allowed to claim free bus travel and found that "there is a risk that some of these people may be more socially excluded than some NCT users who are relatively fit, able bodied and well off".

We have had dozens of MSPs from all parties supporting this campaign through motions and debate in the Parliament but this issue has been sidestepped by the government time and again.

This report can be the time for the Scottish Government to correct this injustice. Difficult decisions may have to be taken in the next few months but that is no excuse for failing to address long standing injustices.

Ian Hood

Learning Disability Alliance Scotland

Eskbank

Dalkeith

Defending the national concessionary travel scheme (NCTS) for older Scots is admirable enough but Age Scotland is absolutely correct: any scheme which leaves those most in need stranded because there are no stops or routes anywhere near them really is screaming out for change.

It is community transport (CT) schemes run by voluntary groups that reach these folk and give them the independence to remain living well in their own communities for longer, thus preventing runaway costs accruing to the NHS and local authorities' care budgets but CT services are currently at risk across Scotland, with some already axed.

No-one has put forward any rational reason (there have been a few daft ones) why CT is excluded from the NCTS or why the private sector should monopolise state resources in this area and there is little if any evidence that the NCTS is the most efficient way to meet the transport needs of our most vulnerable older people.

Audit Scotland is right: in the current financial environment a rethink is sorely needed.

Andrew Jackson

WRVS in Scotland

Mansfield Place

Edinburgh