Pensioners face charge for Ring and Ride service
Saturday 26th February 2011, 5:00PM GMT.
Pensioners across the West Midlands face having to pay a daily charge for using Ring and Ride to avoid services being cut, it emerged today.
A 60p single trip price could be introduced from April as transport chiefs have to fill a £900,000 black hole caused by reductions in council funding.
Pass holders now get free travel on the service which has been operating in the region since 1983, and is used by thousands a year.
More than 30,000 elderly and disabled people were recently asked to take part in a ballot over its future.
A total of 15,429 regular users replied with 13,934 voting in favour of paying a charge rather than the number of journeys being cut.
The charity West Midlands Special Needs Transport runs the service which is funded by Centro through the seven district councils.
It cost taxpayers £12 million last year but budget pressures have lead to a £900,000 shortfall.
A reduced service, or a charge of £1.20 return or £36 annual membership, were suggested to cover the deficit.
The final decision will be made at a meeting of Centro’s Integrated Transport Authority on March 7.
Centro director Stephen Rhodes said: “Users have told us what they feel. Now it is down to members to decide the best course of action.”
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This will result in the absurb situation where disabled Ring-and-Ride pensioners will have to pay for their bus journeys, whilst other pensioners – many of whom are able-bodied, own cars and can easily afford to pay a nominal bus fare – can still ride on their buses for nothing.
This is because it would require a change in the law for CENTRO and other local authorities to be able to charge, say, 20p flat fare per journey in order to recoup some of the costs of providing concessionary fares to the elderly (which, in CENTRO’s case, consumes half its budget!).
However, because local authorities cannot charge for concessionary fare journeys the result is that they may instead have to make economies by slashing subsidised bus services instead – including the subsidy they pay to community transport schemes like Ring-and-Ride.
But then, as with ‘free’ bus passes, ultimately there is no such thing as a free lunch.
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Just think – if the councils weren’t obliged to spend so much money placing public notices in the local press, they could fund the Ring and Ride service. Perhaps the E&S could take up the campaign?
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We can not expect the state to pay for every thing. 60p is hardly expensive, think how much a taxi would cost.
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my daughter is disabled. without the ring and ride service it would be impossible for her to travel. i think its right making pensioners pay for this service, like someone said they can use the public transport (for free) like anyone else, but my daughter cannot. i filled my form in and said i would be willing to pay the yearly subscribtion. but it does make my blood boil when she cant get on the service due to the pensioners, my daughter attends walsall college to learn not to go and shop. if she cannot go to college due to this then i have to take a day off work so i can catch the public transport with her to make sure she gets to college. my daughter and so many disabled people cannot catch normal public transport due to their disabilities. if she could catch public transport she would then that would leave an extra space for someone more deserving but she cant.
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Stop moaning and pay up, who cares if you are a pensioner or disabled. If you want to use services then you must pay end of. We in India do not give us anything and we survive, too much poosy footing in the UK.
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how many of the people using ring and ride are also claiming mobilty allowence..i bet at least half of the people who use this service have a mobilty car for which a family member swans of to work in thus leaving the dissabled person to use up another free form of transport hence they should only be allowed one or another not both
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