Concessionary fares condemned as ‘crushing burden’ in tough fiscal times

An article criticising the Government’s concessionary bus fares scheme in The Guardian generated a lengthy and unusually coherent debate amongst the paper’s online readers about the merits (or otherwise) of allowing the elderly to travel free on buses.

On February 7 Guardian commentator Julian Glover devoted his column to a detailed analysis of the Government’s concessionary fare scheme for elderly and disabled bus users.

“If state penny-pinching threatens even a single sequin on an opera soprano’s gown, you can be sure a grandee will start screaming,” Glover began his comments, under the doom-laden headline “Our bus services are being slowly crushed by the pensioner burden”.

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