Bring on the Bus Pass! (And the latest must-have accessory)
In case you missed it, I’m a year older. The big 6-0. Have bus pass, will travel (for free). After paying over the odds to Transport for London for decades, this feels like such a bonus. Apologies to all those who will not receive discounted travel for a few years, I really don’t mean to gloat. Throughout 2023 I did keep wondering if some spiteful government official would put a stop to this brilliant, over-60 benefit…
When I mentioned my bus pass to Manhattan Brother (who is two years younger than me) he said, ‘ Oh, that’s scary.’ But it’s not, it’s exciting. Returning from my New York trip to an envelope containing my over-60 Oyster card has been the highlight of my year, so far.
Many of us are working and commuting and don’t feel the age we are; numerous friends and I have vowed to celebrate our swinging sixties in style. Unlike our mothers’ generation who kept their heads down and kept quiet about it, we’re going to make some noise. Fortunately, I have already created the best birthday cards to send out to everyone, in collaboration with Charlotte Day the Dandy Star designer (available HERE).
We will continue to do our own thing, as we age – our mothers’ generation didn’t have the same opportunities or freedom. I’m going to make the most of my bus pass to get out and about more, I’ll be lining up a few weekend walks along the Thames. Oh and I’ve discovered the latest must-have accessory, an item that is absolutely essential: a lovely card holder to protect the precious bus pass. (COS has one on a lanyard!)
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Discussion (47 Comments)
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carole b says:
Congratulations Alyson! You look fab in the pic on the card – strong, proud, beautiful… Enjoy this year, and all your travels!
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Gill says:
I got mine a year ago. It’s a wonderful thing and very welcome now we seem to get fewer and fewer perks in these grim times. Any excuse to buy new accessories is a good thing too …
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Jan M Fawke says:
One of the best things about ageing! I love my gold opal card h I’m in Sydney)….which gives me discounted fares on all forms of transport….buses, trains, light rail and FERRIES!, Now, to find out whether visitors can get an over 60’s Oyster card!
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Belle Coutts says:
I am so envious Having moved out of London some years ago, I will have to wait until I reach state pension age for a national bus pass. At least I can look forward to buying a senior railcard this year!
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Bev S says:
I’m just coming to the end of my first senior rail card – it’s been well worth it, and I will go for the three-year option next time!
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Julie Seddon says:
I did the same when my first senior railcard ended. I used it so much (and saved a lot) that I went for the three year option too!
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Congrats Alyson, and welcome! Some other benefits of turning 60 are free eye tests and prescriptions (although we all hope to keep these to a minimum). I’ve also made the most of a senior rail card this last year and plan to go for the three-year option next time. Enjoy your adventures!
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Step says:
Happy Birthday Alyson. I must admit my 60+ Oyster Card was one of my best presents. I persuaded my dear friend V to apply for hers too. Now we wizz up and down Regent Street to save our poor knees. One of the joys of London living!
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K says:
Happy birthday.
Congratulations on your bus pass. I just wondered why you feel you have paid over the odds to TFL for decades?-
Thank you. Travel in London is expensive! Fares have just been frozen for a year (by the mayor) to help with the cost of living crisis.
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Sarah Cleverdon says:
I got my card a few years ago and I use it with great pleasure. However, getting my card has coincided with savage cuts to rural bus services. Be aware of how lucky you are, big city dwellers.
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Thanks Sarah. I am aware and I’m very sorry to hear about the cuts. But not surprised given the state of things in this country, nothing works properly.
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Rosemary says:
So unfair that people in London get a pass at 60 while the rest of us have to wait till 66
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Congratulations Alyson
I received my pass in December and it cheered me up after having to leave my job quite suddenly. I can now travel to my local shopping centre in comfort by train in Zone 5 for free without enduring a certain speedy twisty turny bus route that usually leaves me nauseous on arrival. I’m enjoying visits to my favourite London gyms, yoga and spin studios without incurring extra costs. Ageing indeed is a privilege.
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Rach with an E says:
I agree it should be rolled out nationwide. My mum (86) has a bus pass and will get on the bus to go and buy a birthday card from a shop 15 miles away. She enjoys the trip and also supports an independent bookshop where she knows she can find a lovely card.
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Bee says:
I have had mine for 16 years now and not had the use of it once due to no rural bus services were we live in Scotland. Rural areas are deprived of so many vital services that towns take for granted. Public transport to reach services should be universal.
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Adele Geras says:
Lovely post! Happy birthday….I have been loving my passes for 20 years almost! Will be 80 in March…they’re a real bon!
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Sally says:
I love my bus pass. It is the most wonderful asset particularly for those of us who live near London. Your photo is terrific. My husband took mine. He decided to practice to see how the app worked. So I stood against the kitchen wall, make up free and with wet hair dripping down and, you guessed, he accidentally sent it. I look beyond dreadful. Fortunately nobody has ever asked to look at it.
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Hilary says:
I don’t drive so I really appreciate my bus and rail passes which I have had since I was 60 (I’m now 75).
I feel sorry for young people though and wish there was some sort of a scheme where I could pay for my journey and let a young person have a free ride occasionally.
Travelling back from my son’s wedding abroad in 2016 I was told I could use my UK bus pass in Budapest- and I don’t speak Hungarian! Everybody was charming and helpful so I did manage to get back to the airport.
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Lizzie g says:
Apart from really good arrangements for older people, Ireland has half price public transport for all young people up to 25, student or not, and it includes participating commercial operators, more prevalent in rural areas. Far cheaper than UK prices. Trying to rebalance inter generational inequities, young people finding or starting work, as well as support environmental objectives.
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Boadicea says:
Yes, Hilary is right, Budapest is great for free transport for visiting oldies, including the underground.
I agree, bus passes are so useful but unfortunately, despite an unusually good bus service in our area, we hardly use our passes to visit our nearest town. It’s centre has been taken over by undesirables, shops are closing and car parking is expensive – hence the value of a bus pass although hardly worth using it. Such a shame.
You seem more fortunate in London, Alyson. I’m sure you and your bus pass (and posh holder) will soon be clocking up the miles. And Happy Birthday.As for Manhattan Brother, presumably he’ll be able to take advantage of New York’s freebies when he too, er, comes of age. If they’re still available, of course. I still remember the time a bus driver took ages to help a lady in a wheelchair off his bus, with her complaining all the time, despite his care. On getting back inside eventually, he said, ‘”Sorry for the delay, folks. She’s not really going anywhere. She does this every day – just because she can!”‘
Have just had a thought” does your new mode of transport mean that your other half will have to pay full fare when he tags along or is he a proud owner of a BP already? And (second thought), I don’t remember you ever saying that he found his glasses ooh, a long time ago. Did they ever turn up? I’ve been so worried !
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Thanks, Boadicea. Mr TNMA is 60 in May so he’s still paying full fare – and sadly his reading glasses didn’t turn up. That is very well remembered!
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Lesley says:
Congratulations, Alyson! Enjoy your new pass. I live about five minutes walk from a Central line station, but in Essex, so sadly, don’t qualify for a 60+ card!
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Liza Green says:
Congratulations on your birthday! Bus passes are wonderful. Recently travelled to Orkney for the cost of £1 booking fee all the way from Edinburgh. Just think it’s a shame you can’t use English passes in Scotland and vice versa., especially if Budapest allows use of them, how amazing, I wonder when Hilary says her UK pass she means English, as they are definitely two separate things.
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Hi Liza, yes it’s an English bus pass as I live in Yorkshire.
I don’t know if it would still work in Budapest, I presume that now we have left the EU things like that won’t work anymore but I’ve not had chance to go back and try!
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As we are discussing things for aging well and wanting some pizazz, can I ask you to consider looking into support socks for tired legs needing some help please? 🙂 The ones from the GP are dreadful orange things and I am sure there must be some great ones out there but I just do not know where to look or who to trust. Any good suggestions? They may help me “Keep Moving” as you say on those cards!
I can’t use a bus pass to access culture, health, shopping or anything else really but I want to look after my aging legs!
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Debs C says:
Re. the support socks, I don’t know this company, but a friend bought some of their compression socks, so perhaps worth a look. http://www.notyourgrandmas.co.uk
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Happy Birthday, wishing you many more and good health,
I had a wonderful Ladies lunch on mine, have to admit now some time ago, some of my friends still talk about it. So my motto is ‘make memories’.
My bus pass is now in a bright pink ‘crocodile’ Jasper Conran card holder bought in his sale for £8.00, and looks a million dollar.
Easy to see in a a handbag. I Never drive in London these days, hop on hop off is so much more fun, often the bus is a bit like a pensioners outing, all very jolly.
Looking forward to your posts and great fashion sense. -
Jill Shooter says:
Not quite eligible for a freedom pass (have to wait until March for that) however I really appreciate my “vintage” railcard, travel up to London regularly and it makes a huge difference.
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I moved to London to retire last year and now have a Freedom Pass !!! It’s changed my life !!! In the North East you have to be pension age before you can apply for a free bus pass . It should be the same wherever you live in England . My husband and I are on the voyage of discovery and it has definitely earned its name .
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Mandy says:
Happy Birthday Allyson I am 65 this year and still have to wait a few more years before I can get a bus pass. Joys of living in a “tax haven” haha.
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Lin James says:
I had to wait until I was 66 for my bus pass (Newcastle upon Tyne) – and also feel concerned that the application process is now online only, which is fine for those of us who have smartphones but excludes those who don’t (& who really need free travel too).
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66 for a bus pass in NE Hampshire and, to be honest, public transport is practically non-existent and what there is runs at odd times, doesn’t join up with other service providers, so you could end up stranded and takes forever, with some buses doing multiple stops over a very long distance from one town to the city at the end of its route!! The only thing I got at 60 was free prescriptions and the odd concession in some establishments / venues, that I take full advantage of when able. Still working full time, without the car, life would be impossible where I live and that’s in a town of some 8,000 (a real issue locally is social isolation and the difficulties of travel for some) and within 12 miles of three major towns and a city! I regularly meet up with friends in London (born and bred in London), where they travel to the venue for nothing and I have to fork out £40 odd, even with my train card (which is still a network card due to not everyone who travels with me on the train being over 60). Envious of London’s card, but realise it comes with a cost!
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Sara says:
Congrats Alyson, both on your birthday and your bus pass. One of the other good moves in recent years was the removal of the compulsory retirement age so you can use your bus pass to go to work! Although I worked by choice until I was 67, I recall my mother being both angry and upset that she had to retire at 60. Both of us l9ved our (very different) jobs and I really appreciated being able to choose when and how I left. I don’t begrudge you your bus pass for one minute but as someone living in the semi rural North west I wish that both the services and the passes could be nationally rolled out. Surely the idea is in the name: a bus “service”? Heaven hel0 me if ever I can’t drive. In the meantime , enjoy all that the buses have to offer!
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Me again: I replied to Hilary’s comment above but have just read Lin’s contribution…
It is disgracefully deplorable that those who often need the most help are so often excluded or handicapped from obtaining it these days because they don’t have a smartphone and/or internet access for whatever reason. And even if they do have access, don’t have the skills/confidence to use them for fear of making a mistake resulting in a huge financial mistake – pressing the wrong keys, say – with no redress or understanding from today’s huge, uncaring institutions.
Such institutions taking the easy way out and insisting on online applications for anything is a lack of duty of care in my book. Bus companies, councils and others providing a public service need kicking into touch for failing to provide that public service. Yes, it’s there on offer but not technically (no pun intended) possible for everyone to apply for it. Perhaps if everyone needing a Newcastle upon Tyne bus pass wrote a letter – needing a signature – requesting their bus pass it might alert the jobworths to the fact that IT technology does not live in every home. I so hate the way everyone is assumed to have state-of-the-art technology plus the ability to use it.
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Mrs Tonia says:
I don’t think it’s an assumption that everyone has access to the technology to do online applications as the only way. More a business decision. To simplify the procedure for the providers. Less staff less processing. But I agree it is prejudiced against those who most need to get bus passes or senior railcards. The latter used to be available via a paper form handed in at a window with a person to help. Now when I’ve renewed my rail card it’s required online including uploading ones own photo to attach virtually to the virtual application. Still a senior rail card with – 30% discount is well worthy buying to economise on rail travel.
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Emma Renton says:
Its the most brilliant birthday present because suddenly it opens up a whole world of visiting the city I have lived in all my life – London. Because now I think nothing of having trips into town, visiting unknown places, going on distant walks, etc. Hurrah
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JoanCecile says:
Congratulations, Alyson! I think 60 can be a fabulous age with the right outlook, and I am so happy that you are entering this time with curiosity, enterprise, creativity and high spirits. Thank you for providing this wonderful open forum with the best of creative solutions for aging with grace.
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Donna says:
I love my Freedom Pass. I still have to pay to get into work in the mornings but coming home is free. (It also gives you 10% off at Iceland on Tuesdays!)
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Congratulations! I’ve always welcomed the perks that come with being a senior.
Sian 
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Congratulations Alyson on this dynamic new age. 60 not being the new 40 but rather the new 60 !
I’m a good decade older than you but doing my best to still be active and a participant in life. Grateful too to still be here and able to move about.
I am pleased to have a bus pass which I have used extensively throughout the country. I’m not in London so still need an Oyster card for tube journeys but can whizz all over London when there on buses. Newest discovery was a bus on Euston Road near Marylebone which goes straight to the Design Museum on High Street Kendington. And back to station. This is one I used to take from Paddington previously. Easy to route plan using TfL app.
Enjoy your new year exploring.