Concessionary Travel - Eligible Services Changes

Based on Department for Transport guidelines

Minor changes were made to the eligibility criteria for which services are included in the mandatory concession from 1 April 2009.

The changes were intended to clarify the existing eligibility criteria. They explicitly exclude certain types of service that are outside of the spirit of the mandatory national concession, reducing potential for any confusion over whether a service is eligible.

Local authorities are able to offer concessionary travel on any affected service on a discretionary basis.
The changes do not affect how much funding local authorities receive for concessionary travel.

Question & Answer

General

What changes have been made? 

• The following types of services are now explicitly excluded from the mandatory concession:
• Services on which the majority of seats can be reserved in advance of travel (such as coaches);
• Services that are intended to run for a period of less than six consecutive weeks;
• Services operated primarily for the purposes of tourism or because of the historical interest of the vehicle.
• Rail replacement services;
• Services where the fare charged by the operator has a special amenity element.
•  

Why have these changes been introduced?
The current eligibility criteria were introduced in 2002, when the mandatory concession was for half price travel within a local authority area. The introduction of Englandwide concessionary travel in particular put the eligibility criteria under greater scrutiny and concerns were raised that some services not within the spirit of the concession were in fact eligible for the mandatory concession.

The DfT responded to requests from local authorities and operators to re-visit the eligibility criteria to provide greater clarity and ensure that only services within the spirit of the legislation are included.

What is the intention of the mandatory concession?
The bus concession is intended to address the social exclusion of older and eligible disabled people in England by providing improved access to local services and amenities by using local bus services

How many services have been affected by the changes?
The impact assessment that accompanying the legislation estimated that coaches were the most likely type of service to be affected and that around 22,500 trips out of many millions of concessionary trips per year could be affected.

Services on which more than half of the space can be reserved

What is this exclusion designed to do?
It is intended to exclude long distance intercity services, which typically are coach services, from the concession. Under the previous criteria, some sections of coach routes qualified for concessionary travel. Because previously travel was restricted to a local authority area, this was not an issue. However, with the introduction of England-wide concessionary travel, the DfT reassessed the criteria.

Why not just exclude coaches?
Referring to the vehicle type was rejected as the same service can quite conceivably be run using either a "coach" or a "bus".

Why shouldn’t coach services be included in the statutory concession?
The mandatory concession is intended for local bus services. There is a separate half-price coach concession which is not affected by these changes.

What if a coach service also provides an important local service?
Although the Department believe that these services lie outside of the scope of the mandatory concession, a local authority has the ability to offer concessionary travel on a discretionary basis on any services
affected by these changes.

Services that are intended to run for less that six consecutive weeks

What is this exclusion designed to do?
This exclusion is intended to exclude explicitly very short-term services typically operating for the purpose of taking people to special events. They are temporary services which are outside of the intention of the concession.

Why shouldn’t these services be included in the mandatory concession?
These services are either temporary or short-term and typically for special events rather than access to everyday goods and services. They are therefore outside the scope of the mandatory concession.

Services operated primarily for the purposes of tourism or because of the historical interest of the vehicle

What is this exclusion designed to do?
It is intended to exclude tourist and sightseeing buses, which charge premium fares and may have commentaries or other such services. It also excludes services that are only run because the vehicle is of historical interest.

What about local services that stop at locations popular with tourists? 
The exclusion is not designed to exclude these services. The Department’s view is that this exemption would not in any way exclude normal local bus services that charge standard fares but which happen to stop at tourist or historic venues.

Rail Replacement Services

What is this exclusion designed to do?
It is intended to explicitly exclude temporary rail replacement services from the concession.

Why shouldn’t these services be included in the statutory concession?
The concession is for local bus services. Rail replacement services are for rail passengers and so are not within the intention of the concession.

What about new bus services that "replace" a rail service which has been permanently withdrawn?
A local bus service which meets the other eligibility criteria is established as a permanent replacement for a withdrawn rail service would still qualify for the concession. The exclusion is intended for temporary rail replacement services, such as those operated to cover engineering works.

Services where the fare includes a Special Amenity Element
What is this exemption intended to do?
It is intended to exclude services where the fare includes payment for something over and above the simple carriage of people. This could include a number of different things, such as a complimentary drink, newspaper, a guided commentary.

Why shouldn’t these services be included in the mandatory concession?
These services offer more than just the carriage of people on local services and as such are outside the scope of the concession.

What about "Park and Ride" schemes?
This exemption is not aimed specifically at park and ride schemes. In fact, the term "park and ride" can be misleading as there is not a single category of service. There exists a number of different bus and car parking arrangements.  In some schemes, the car parking fee is included in the bus fare. This would be a special amenity element and the service would be excluded from the mandatory concession. However, a local authority may wish to include any service affected by the changes in its discretionary scheme. The proposals give local authorities the flexibility to make decisions for their park and ride schemes.

Why not offer free travel but require concessionaires to pay for the amenity element?
The DfT does not believe that these services are within the scope of the mandatory concession. However, local authorities have the ability to offer reduced fares as well as free travel as part of their discretionary schemes.

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