A rise in car use means that fewer than half of people over 60 now apply for their senior citizen’s bus pass.

Department for Transport figures released today (Thursday 27 November) show the take-up rate has fallen from 60 per cent ten years ago, to just 47 per cent.  This is despite a requirement for all local councils to provide at least half-fare bus travel to those aged 60 and over.

“More older people are now likely to be car drivers, so their use of buses is declining,” according to the Government report.

Take-up has even fallen in the West Midlands, where the Passenger Transport Authority extends the scheme to free travel for people over 65 and gives concessionary travel on trains and Metro services as well as buses.  The public transport promoter Centro has just launched an advertising campaign to encourage more people to apply for their pass.

Centro calculates almost forty thousand people in the West Midlands could be missing out on free travel on buses, trains and Metro and a further 12,000 have not taken up the offer of half fare travel.

Elsewhere in its report, the Government’s public transport statistics reveal the number of local bus passenger journeys in England increased by three per cent in 2002/03 to 3,897 million, up from 3,798 million the previous year.

But there is a significant gap between services in London, where passenger numbers grew by eight per cent, and the rest of the country, where passenger figures are still falling.  Local bus fares increased by one per cent in real terms in England in 2002/03, while in London there was a real fall in bus fares of three per cent.