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Free travel ban for under-18s ‘unlikely before end of term’

Transport for London boss said removing free travel from under-18s would be impossible to enforce: Getty Images
Transport for London boss said removing free travel from under-18s would be impossible to enforce: Getty Images

Controversial plans to withdraw free bus and Tube travel from London children and teenagers are unlikely to be imposed before the school summer holidays start next month, the Standard understands.

It came as Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was today revealed to have responded forcefully to a call from Mayor Sadiq Khan for the Government to drop the proposal.

The removal of free travel from under-18s – for an unknown period - was a condition, apparently imposed at the last minute, in last month’s £1.6bn coronavirus bailout from the Government for Transport for London.

The aim was to reduce the number of teenagers using public transport to prioritise space for key workers but legal and practical problems have emerged

The removal of free travel from was a condition of TfL's £1.6 billion bailout from the Government (Getty Images)
The removal of free travel from was a condition of TfL's £1.6 billion bailout from the Government (Getty Images)

It emerged that 30 per cent of London pupils were legally entitled to free school travel – and withdrawing the TfL-provided benefit would force councils to pay.

A ban on over-60s travelling free on weekdays before 9am – which was also part of the bailout - will start on June 15, but discussions continue between TfL and the Department for Transport on removing the benefit from children.

Sources indicated today any change was unlikely to be implemented before the school term ends in six weeks.

Mr Khan backs the principle of reducing the number of children using public transport, especially buses, but wants to find an alternative solution to removing free travel.

Before coronavirus, London children made 1.5 million bus journeys and 200,000 Tube journeys a day.

In a letter to Mr Shapps, the Mayor said: “I would urge you now to drop this condition and work with us on other ways of reducing public transport usage by children to fulfil the objectives we both share.”

But Mr Shapps hit back strongly, saying the purpose of removing travel was to protect public health. He told the Mayor to finalise his proposals by next week.

Responding to Mr Khan, Mr Shapps wrote: “Before the crisis, young people using the free travel concession made up half of all bus users during the morning rush hour, many of them for extremely short journeys which would not have been made had they not been free.

“Clearly, one important way of avoiding the child use of public transport that we are both concerned about, and of preserving the social distancing that we are both keen to maintain, is to no longer subsidise young people to make such journeys.

“The purpose of withdrawing the concession is to protect public health and reduce the spread of a highly infectious disease by avoiding dangerous levels of crowding on buses. That is why it is explicitly described as temporary in the agreement.”

Mr Shapps said alternative “active travel” plans proposed by TfL – such as measures to encourage walking and cycling – would take too long to implement. Staggering school start and finish times “may also not deliver the size of impact required”, he added.

Face coverings will be required on public transport from June 15 (AFP via Getty Images)
Face coverings will be required on public transport from June 15 (AFP via Getty Images)

He said “essential journeys by children will be protected”. He said London Councils, which represents the 33 boroughs, had been told that the cost of providing free transport to the 30 per cent of children with a legal right to it “will not fall on the London boroughs”.

Mr Shapps said: “We therefore ask that any work on alternatives be carried out in parallel with the work to operationalise the withdrawal of the u18 concession to which you have committed in the agreement. I ask that you come up with the operational plan which you have agreed to produce by 10 June at the latest.”

The escalation of the row came as a top TfL boss said removing free travel from under-18s and forcing them to pay would be impossible to enforce.

TfL finance chief Simon Kilonback told the TfL board that the loss of free travel for under-18s was “imposed on us at the very last minute” and added: “We said all along we didn’t think it was possible to actually implement this operationally.

“We continue, as the Mayor has done publicly, to challenge why this is a good thing to do. Even if it is a good thing to do, we are simply not set up to be able to operationalise it.”

Council leaders and MPs today warned it “risks making children from poorer backgrounds even poorer”.

Labour-run Redbridge and Barking and Dagenham councils and the Labour MPs for the areas said the measures could stop the poorest children from using public transport and put councils further into debt,

They said: “These measures are desperately unfair. They risk the wellbeing of our poorest children and they unfairly shift another financial burden on to local councils at a time when we can least afford it.”

The Department for Transport said it rejected suggestions that it would be an unacceptable administrative burden for councils to identify the 30 per cent of children still entitled to free travel. It said simpler measures had been proposed to establish who remained entitled to free travel.

The government is aiming for schools to begin re-opening from June 1st in a phased approach (Getty Images)
The government is aiming for schools to begin re-opening from June 1st in a phased approach (Getty Images)

The terms of the bail-out deal require TfL to bring forward “travel demand management proposals as soon as practicable to optimise the use of the available safe transport capacity, including but not limited to temporary suspension of free travel for Freedom Pass and 60-plus card holders during peak and the suspension of free travel for u18s, subject to discussions in the working group about how it is to be operationalised”.

A DfT spokesman told the Standard: “The terms of the government’s £1.6bn funding package for TfL were agreed upon by the Deputy Mayor for Transport and the Mayor of London.

“The decision was agreed on under-18 free travel to tackle the spread of the virus and reduce pressure on the transport network. As part of the deal, the concession for children eligible for free home to school travel will continue.

“We look forward to seeing TfL’s operational plan by June 10.”

TfL has announced that temporary changes to free travel for holders of the Older Person’s Freedom Pass and 60+ Oyster card will start on Monday June 15. Travel will no longer be free before 9am on weekdays.

Disabled passengers will continue to be able to travel for free at all times.

Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer at Transport for London said: "Given the national requirement to maintain two-metre social distancing, the capacity of buses and trains is hugely reduced. These temporary changes to the Older Person’s Freedom Pass and 60+ Oyster card pass during morning peak travel will help reduce the risk of crowding when it would be more difficult to maintain social distancing.”

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