Rick's St Mary's Diary

I have had a query from a resident who is an OAP and thus entitled to free local bus travel. He travels on the X43 from Prestwich to Burnley. In the past, he has travelled free until the boundary of the Borough of Bury, then got off the bus, joined the back of the queue, got back on the same bus and paid to travel the rest of the way. Recently he has been told that this is not acceptable. Unfortunately, the reason he's been told this isn't because the situation is plainly ridiculous, but because he now has to get off the bus at the boundary, and wait for the next one, which will be along in half an hour!

He has no problem with paying from the boundary to Burnley, and neither do I. What he is concerned about (and what I am concerned about too) is the farce of having to get off a bus, only to wait to continue the same journey, simply to comply with administrative rules. It is bureaucracy gone mad.

I think a sensible solution would be to return to the original state of affairs as a minimum, or preferably to have a system whereby OAPs don't have to get off the bus at the boundary at all, and can just explain their situation to the driver on boarding the bus, and pay the appropriate amount. It seems ludicrous to force elderly people to wait at a bus stop whilst a bus that they were just on drives off without them, heading for their destination! And in the winter it will be even worse I'm sure.

I have contacted the GMPTE to try and get some clarity on the rules, and clear a way through the bureacratic jungle to get to a sensible solution that doesn't see hordes of elderly people shivering at bus stops.

Rick