Travelling to London?

Please find below an outline of the 2008 English bus concessionary scheme in relation to London.

The National bus concessionary scheme will offer, throughout England, free local bus travel from 0930 until 2300 on weekdays, all day weekends and bank holidays to Elderly and eligible Disabled people resident in England.

• However, Transport for London (TfL) have decided to accept the National Concessionary bus passes at the same times as Freedom Passes, i.e. for the Elderly from 0900 to 1630 Monday to Friday, all day at weekends and bank holidays and for the Disabled at all times.
• Within London, the National Concessionary bus passes can be used on buses only. Unlike London's freedom pass scheme, the National Concessionary bus passes will not be accepted on trams, the Tube, Dockland Light Railway, London Over-ground and National Rail.
• The National Concessionary bus passes can however be used on some non-TfL commercial bus services in London which qualify.  These are usually London Service Permit routes, although not all such routes will be included.  The validity time for these services is the same as for services outside London. Users will have to contact their local Borough or London Councils for further information on exactly which services are included.
• Both the Elderly and Disabled National concessionary bus passes will be issued on photo smartcards but the encoding system they use is not compatible with Oyster, therefore they will be used as flash passes in London and inspected by the driver.
• Other Information:
• Elderly and Disabled people outside London should apply to their local authorities for one of the new National Concessionary bus passes.
• The National scheme hours referred to above are a minimum. Local authorities may give their own residents additional benefits for travel in their home area as they do today, for example wider hours or other modes.
• The London Boroughs are paying for the cost of the new scheme in London (as they do currently for Freedom Passes) except for journeys outside the standard national hours, where TfL will bear the cost.
• As previously advised, existing FreedomPass holders must get their pass re-stickered to use it after 1 April 2008, and the sticker will include branding for the new National scheme, so that freedom pass holders will be able to use their passes on local buses outside London from 1 April. Outside London, Freedom Passes cannot be read electronically, even where buses are equipped with readers, and so these passes should always be shown to the driver outside London.
• Although the new passes will be smartcards (encoded to a standard known as ITSO, rather than Oyster) most buses outside London will not have appropriate electronic readers for some time, and so even outside London the National Concessionary bus passes will still be subject to driver inspection on most buses for the foreseeable future.
• The National scheme will be supported by an ad campaign which will feature a 'destination anywhere' bus stop design and will appear in national and consumer press throughout the coming weeks.
• A list of detailed FAQs on the scheme is available at the Department for Transport website.

If you are traveling to London it is worth contacting the local authority or Transport for London first. Their main telephone number is 0207 222 1234, and their textphone is 0207 918 3015.

More details on London authorities can be found on the DirectGov website.