Old people’s bus fares

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 12

Old people’s bus fares

No-one wants to see people who have retired having to struggle to make ends meet or being unable to enjoy their years of retirement because their incomes cover only the bare necessities. Many old people rely on the bus services provided by the Christchurch Transport Board to get out and about. If the recent rise in fares were to curtail the mobility of elderly people, there would be cause for concern. But most of the reduced fares offered old people rose by only one or two cents. Only one rose by as much as three cents. Most ordinary fares rose by greater amounts. The extra charge for pensioners and other elderly people, even if they use buses frequently, will not be more than a few cents each week. Furthermore, pensions will be increased this month by, proportionately, greater amounts than the incomes of those wage-earners who are also having to pay higher bus fares.

The Christchurch Transport Board will not be acting unreasonably if it declines to give pensioners the larger reduction in fares being sought for them by the jCanterbury Aged People’s Welfare Council. Fares paid by pensioners make only a small contribution to the Board’s revenue but, small as it is, the contribution helps the board to keep its regular fares at a level low enough not to discourage commuters and to avoid excessive increases in its rates. The amount that most pensioners will have to spend is still not too large to be a burden or to limit the mobility of old people who have no other way of getting around but by bus. Old people have more pressing problems than the charges for their bus travel. The subsidy for pensioners is not one that many would begrudge; but it is the kind of assistance that is rather unevenly applied. If the board thinks again about the concession, it might yield to an appeal to reduce the fares for pensioners who travel long distances.