Council leader backs tram pass charges for over-66-year-olds
ROCHDALE council leader Allen Brett said he supports the move to charge older people £10 for their concessionary tram and train passes.
While bus passes for over-66-year-olds will remain completely free, in line with national legislation, from next year anyone wanting to extend that concession to Metrolink or the rail network will need to pay an annual administrative charge.
The move will help pay for reform of the region’s bus network and will come in from January at the earliest.
Councillor Allen Brett said: “Public transport can be a lifeline for people and we want to ensure as
many people as possible can access it.
“For less than £1 a month older people can continue to enjoy free bus, train and tram travel right across the Greater Manchester region, which is a pretty good deal.
“It’s also the same amount we are asking young people to pay for their travel passes, and if you don’t want to pay you can still use busses for free so it is very fair.”
While mayor Andy Burnham said the plan was to create ‘parity’ with 16-18-year-olds signing up to the new Our Pass young people’s discount scheme, who will be charged a one-off £10 annually for otherwise free travel, several town hall leaders said it was fundamentally also about raising money to overhaul the region’s bus network in the long term.
Currently older people receive tram and rail access on top of their legal entitlement to free bus travel, without having to pay an admin fee.
Introducing the charge would raise about £1.25m, transport officials believe.
A discussion on the plan - at the latest meeting of the combined authority, where it was agreed saw council chiefs debate the arguments for and against.
Greater Manchester’s bus plans have a tricky few months ahead of them, after the mayor confirmed the region’s initial plan would seek to take the network back into public control.
The detail of that will now have to go through an audit process that will see it independently scrutinised on a range of measures, including whether the region can afford to pay for that model.
In the meantime operators have hinted strongly at potential legal action if that plan goes ahead, a challenge that would require Greater Manchester to build a fighting fund.
Nevertheless, Mr Burnham insisted the primary reason for the latest decision was to ‘standardise’ charges for concessionary passes across different age brackets.
He also stressed that only free tram and rail travel for older people would require an admin fee, not bus travel.
“It’s very, very important for me to make clear... that there will be a completely free bus pass for all older people in Greater Manchester.
“Completely free, with no charge attached to it whatsoever,” he said. “That will remain the case and that’s a guarantee from me for as long as I’m mayor.”
Transport officials will now work up a more detailed plan for the administration of the charge and report back in the coming months.