London Banter - View Single Post

Richard J.

wrote:
When a friend of mine was a conductor for London Northern/MTL London
Northern at HT in the late 90s, he said it seemed half the
30/40-plus male population of Camden was travelling on Freedom
passes, allegedly for being being HIV+. At that time the condition
was deemed to lead to death within around 10 years, so simply being
diagonised HIV+ warranted being issued a Freedom Pass, regardless
of whether the person had developed full-blown Aids or ever would
do.

I would assume any stolen Freedom passes would be used on the
Underground, where there is next to no chance of any ID card
inspection.

Now that Freedom Passes use Oyster technology, they can be blocked by
TfL if they are stolen. I think that means they wouldn't open any Tube
station gates; not sure about buses, though.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)