On 2 Jan, 13:51, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Wed, 2 Jan 2008 13:41:08 +0000, "Clive."
wrote:

I live in Cumbria, but have been informed that in April, I'll get a
country wide (OAP) bus pass, would this also include the tube in the
London area or no? Thanks.

Just the bus network - not the tubes or trains unlike London residents.
The government are only funding (and then not in a very sensible way)
free access to bus services within England. Note that there are
different schemes for Scotland and Wales and I'm not sure how cross
border concessions are covered.

Just for the record, of course London Freedom Pass holders (which is
the London OAP & disabled free travel pass) will likewise get free bus
travel elsewhere in England. Interestingly existing London Freedom
Passes will not be replaced by the new style national free bus pass
card until 2010, but will instead just have a sticker applied to them
to show this new validity. I'm sure this will lead to some confusion
when a London Freedom Pass is presented to a bus driver in Cornwall or
Northumberland etc.

See the Freedom Pass website Q&As on this issue:
http://www.freedompass.org/questions...d.htm#national


However the London bus network is very comprehensive so it's still very
easy to get around and can often be quicker than the tube as there are
no long treks down stairs and escalators to platforms and bus stops are
often closer to where people want to go to.


Though it's sometime hard to convince even born and bred Londoners
that this can sometimes be the case!

In addition to what Paul said, it's also well worth noting that many
bus routes are very frequent - and London's bus services have improved
vastly over the past 10 years.