Liberal Democrat Councillor and Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority spokesperson Cllr Andrew Garner is calling on local bus operators to use their common sense when dealing with free bus travel for the elderly on cross-boundary routes. At present, buses such as the X43 from Manchester to Burnley are only free as far as Rawtenstall. Bus operators then have the power to demand that elderly travellers disembark and wait for the next bus to arrive, before paying to continue their journey.

Cllr Garner said “It is absolute madness that these elderley people are forced to get off the bus and wait by themselves for up to half an hour for the next service. Many of them are vulnerable and alone, and are being left at a bus stop whilst a perfectly suitable bus drives off in the direction they are travelling! For a lot of our elderly people, bus travel is the only way to visit family and friends. We should make services as welcoming as possible, and this does just the opposite.”

At present, individual bus drivers can use their discretion, and let their elderly travellers back onto the same bus, if they get off at the boundary and join the back of the queue. But many passengers are not so lucky, and are told that it is against the rules for them to carry on their journey on the same bus. GMPTE have said that no policy changes will be made because all travel for the elderly becomes free in April 2008, regardless of distance. But Bury’s Liberal Democrat GMPTA representatives are concerned that this is still eight months away.

Cllr Garner continued “I am not asking for the whole of the journey to be free. Passengers are more than happy to pay for the journey from the boundary of Bury onto Burnley. What I want is common sense from bus operators, to instruct their drivers never to force an elderley person off the bus simply because they are no longer in Bury. With Winter just a few months away, we should not be making frail passengers get off a bus and wait in the cold for the next one.”