On 27/06/2013 08:46, Roland Perry wrote:

Dr J R Stockton remarked:

The social benefit of free pensioner travel can therefore be offered
from 09:30 at comparatively little cost to the rest of society.

Unfortunately it's not worked out like that. Not only have some routes
become overcrowded by pensioners, so that capacity needs to be
increased, but the cost to local authorities is often quite high.

Cambridge, for example, which doesn't have a particularly good bus
service in the first place, manages to get a net bill of around £1.5m
*after* central grants for the passes, an amount which is around 20% of
the City Council's entire council tax budget.

The obvious source for the necessary extra "funding" (what a delicious
weasel word that has become over the last couple of decades) is the
fares paid by other passengers.