Concessionary Travel - get on the bus!

What's going on?

In his 2006 Budget speech, Gordon Brown announced that from April 2008, the UK Government would guarantee free off-peak travel on local buses to disabled people and those aged over 60 anywhere in England . Until then, these groups were entitled to free off-peak travel locally. The government intended that this new entitlement will be enabled by an England-wide smart card. The legislation also paved the way for mutual recognition with schemes in other parts of the UK .

How does this affect local government smart card schemes?

Although the scheme is being run by existing travel concession authorities (TCAs) in England - district councils, unitary authorities and Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs), - the smart card specification was developed by central government. It is based on the ITSO standard, which is different from that used by many local authority citizen cards.

The Government is assisting TCAs with procurement through framework agreements with suppliers (Fujitsu Services, LogicaCMG, ACT, Novacroft and EXP Systex) and providing a grant to cover additional costs incurred. TCAs (including those that are 'non-smart') are required to sign up with ITSO Services Ltd before they can issue passes.

How has the Forum responded?

On 2nd May 2007, the Forum held a Transport workshop at our event in Wolverhampton, sponsored by the Black Country Consortium. This well attended and lively workshop concluded with a 'call to action' for SCNF and LASSeO to make representations to DfT of the local government viewpoint. The chairs of the two organizations wrote expressing concern about the impact of the proposed card on existing card schemes, in particular stressing the hope that the opportunity should not be missed to combine concessionary travel card and access to local services on a single card. This resulted in a meeting with DfT on 15th May 2007.

Department for Transport Consultation

An 8 week formal consultation period ended on 20th July 2007. Following discussion on the Forum Bulletin Board, the Forum submitted a response to DfT. The Government's overall response to the consultation and a summary of the results is available on the DfT web site http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/closed/concessionarybustravelpass/response.

Forum Consultation Response Form

Forum response to consultation (pdf 23kb)

Citizen Cards and Concessionary Travel

Standards for ensuring that local authority applications (such as library and leisure) can be added to the Concessionary Travel card have been developed following discussions between the Forum, LASSeO, DfT and ITSO.

Details are contained in our Guidance Note: "Citizen Cards and the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS): Why English and Welsh Councils need to act now to keep options open for the future"