CSPA Campaigning
Transport and travel
Decent and affordable public transport is a vital line
of support for older people
As part of Later Life Ambitions we are calling for:
Increased investment in local bus and rail services, for uprated concessions, and for improved accessibility and assistance for older people on all new bus and railway stock and facilities.
Transport - the facts and figures
Decent and affordable public transport is a vital line of support for older people, enabling them to retain their independence. Yet lack of access to public transport can have a significant impact on an older person’s quality of life.
Two in three older people cannot reach a hospital within 30 minutes by public transport, while in England alone 27% of bus routes, measured by mileage, have disappeared in the last ten years with a total of 5,000 routes closing altogether. A
further 2,160 services were lost in 2022-23.
The manifesto: What we're campaigning for
As part of Later Life Ambitions we are calling for: Increased investment in local bus and rail services, for uprated concessions, and for improved accessibility and assistance for older people on all new bus and railway stock and facilities.
- We welcome measures contained in the National Bus Strategy to improve services; however, we also want to see buses made more accessible to all. In alignment with Age UK, we are calling for the bus concession schemes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to remain free and universal for older people.
- We would also like local authorities to have a statutory requirement to provide and maintain minimum standards of accessibility for older people to a supported bus network, in addition to adequate assistance for older people on buses, trains and at stations.
- We believe a digital-first approach to ticketing is wrong, and oppose the closure of railway station ticket offices. We oppose any closure of ticket offices; this would have severe consequences for those who cannot get online to buy a train or plan a journey, discriminating against them by removing their access to travel, or their ability to benefit from better priced ticket deals.
- We want to transition to a nationally administered travel pass system for pensioners, which can be used on all forms of public transport – buses, coaches, rail and tram, as part of the Inclusive Transport Strategy.
Later Life Ambitions
Later Life Ambitions brings together the collective voices of over a quarter of a million pensioners through the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, the Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance, and the National Association of Retired Police Officers Association.
We aim to encourage today’s decision makers to confront the challenges of tomorrow.
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