Lancashire County Council has announced an increase in the fare payable by holders of concessionary pass buses for travel before 09.30 on Mondays to Fridays
The current concessionary fare of 50p will increase to £1 from Monday, 3rd December.
The concession available to disabled passholders will then be:
- English National Concession: free off peak travel (between 9.30am and 11.00pm Monday to Friday, all day Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays) on local bus services throughout England
- From 3rd December 2018 - £1 flat fare per journey on local bus services which start, end or are wholly within Lancashire (includes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool) before 09:30 Monday to Friday.
The council consulted on this move in early 2018 and the results of the consultation were published in June.
Roughly half of respondents objected to the increase, with the other fifty-per-cent either supporting it or having no view either way. The majority of travel before 09.30 was for medical appointments, followed by leisure, shopping, education and work, but only 4% of passengers thought that the increase would make their journey unaffordable.
Although a 100% increase might be considered steep, a major consideration was the ability of passengers to continue to be able to pay for their ticket with a single coin and 38% of respondents said that this was the case. The 50+Assembly and several parish councils stated that they had no objection to the increase.
The Bus Users' Group also did not object to the move. The Council's financial position is well known and there appears to be no prospect a change to that in the foreseeable future. The 50p fare has been in place for some considerable time over a period when other bus fares have risen more sharply than inflation and we agree that for many passholders the ability to pay using only one coin is important.