From April 1st OAP`s have to pay on Football buses

[Royals and Racers]

If only it was a April fool !!!! what a bummer !!! us OAP`S cannot suddenly find an extra £5 per match. I`m so upset I`m going to write to my MP.

[WAZZOCK]

Cool, thanks for the update

[windermereROYAL]

Obviously I don`t know your physical well being. but an option would be to leave home earlier and use public transport. , granted its quite a walk from and to Basingstoke road.

[Sutekh]

Presuming this is not a club policy and is therefore a decision solely made by Reading buses and/or RBC?

Just isn't right at all and something needs to be done about it. Why wouldn't a standard OAP bus pass be valid?

[No Fixed Abode]

If only it was a April fool !!!! what a bummer !!! us OAP`S cannot suddenly find an extra £5 per match. I`m so upset I`m going to write to my MP.

Is there confirmation of this anywhere?

My folks are STH, over 65 and get the bus to every home game. That'll be an extra £230 a season they'll have to fork out just for the league games.

[Royals and Racers]

If only it was a April fool !!!! what a bummer !!! us OAP`S cannot suddenly find an extra £5 per match. I`m so upset I`m going to write to my MP.

Is there confirmation of this anywhere?

My folks are STH, over 65 and get the bus to every home game. That'll be an extra £230 a season they'll have to fork out just for the league games.

Confirmation was on the bus yesterday- they blame Government subsidy cuts- it also said that it`s going to be 9.30 am before passes can be used(mon-fri) starting April 1st. http://www.reading-buses.co.uk/articles ... ry-travel/

[Royals and Racers]

Obviously I don`t know your physical well being. but an option would be to leave home earlier and use public transport. , granted its quite a walk from and to Basingstoke road.

My OP was a bit " tongue-in-cheek" I would rather pay the £5 than mess around with normal buses.

[Ian Royal]

Presuming this is not a club policy and is therefore a decision solely made by Reading buses and/or RBC?

Just isn't right at all and something needs to be done about it. Why wouldn't a standard OAP bus pass be valid?

Slightly factitious, but it's not a standard bus service.

Agree it's not right, but that's what happens when public service funding gets squeezed by the government.

[AthleticoSpizz]

....and it's better than the alternative

[CountryRoyal]

If only it was a April fool !!!! what a bummer !!! us OAP`S cannot suddenly find an extra £5 per match. I`m so upset I`m going to write to my MP.

Is there confirmation of this anywhere?

My folks are STH, over 65 and get the bus to every home game. That'll be an extra £230 a season they'll have to fork out just for the league games.

Maybe you could help them out with all the money you save from not going to games.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Seems like they've been getting their pricing structure all wrong.

£5 for a local bus ride is a total rip off.
Over 65s have been using it for FREE until now? That does seem remarkably generous.

[Royals and Racers]

Seems like they've been getting their pricing structure all wrong.

£5 for a local bus ride is a total rip off.
Over 65s have been using it for FREE until now? That does seem remarkably generous.

OAP`S can travel free on buses all weekend - so hardly generous. the £5 is a return fare. Maybe OAP`s might be offered a discount on the full fare but somehow I doubt it.

[muirinho]

Seems like they've been getting their pricing structure all wrong.

£5 for a local bus ride is a total rip off.
Over 65s have been using it for FREE until now? That does seem remarkably generous.

OAP`S can travel free on buses all weekend - so hardly generous. the £5 is a return fare. Maybe OAP`s might be offered a discount on the full fare but somehow I doubt it.

You can also buy online multiple "match-day" tickets, which cover all travel on a match day in the Reading area. On Tuesday nights that means I get travel to town to go to work, travel on the shuttle from town for the match, and then travel back to Calcot afterwards, for a *max of £5. That seems like a decent deal to me

*max because if you load up your card with 10 it works out at 4.75 a matchday and 20 is £4.50.

But all OAP free-fares are paid for by the council, and they are obviously looking for easy cut-backs. They had already restricted it in Calcot so that OAP's couldn't go for free unless they were within the Reading area, rather than West Berks (which meant walking to a bus-stop closer to town for some)

[Elm Park Kid]

I don't know to be honest. Many OAPs have more disposable cash than young people these days. On what logic should they get free football buses? They don't get free programmes or burgers?

[No Fixed Abode]

If only it was a April fool !!!! what a bummer !!! us OAP`S cannot suddenly find an extra £5 per match. I`m so upset I`m going to write to my MP.

Is there confirmation of this anywhere?

My folks are STH, over 65 and get the bus to every home game. That'll be an extra £230 a season they'll have to fork out just for the league games.

Maybe you could help them out with all the money you save from not going to games.

You're right. I don't go to Reading games. Seeing as I've got over £130,000 saved up, I don't mind helping them out at all.

[No Fixed Abode]

I don't know to be honest. Many OAPs have more disposable cash than young people these days. On what logic should they get free football buses? They don't get free programmes or burgers?

Just seems silly to do this really. If people won't stump up the £5, they can get a bus into town then get a Kennet Island bus, then walk the rest of the way. That's ok if you're mobile enough. Given that Reading buses make so much profit apparently and are 'self funding', you'd think they would just leave it as it is without the excuse of Gov cuts. Pathetic stuff again from RBC.

[No Fixed Abode]

Presuming this is not a club policy and is therefore a decision solely made by Reading buses and/or RBC?

Just isn't right at all and something needs to be done about it. Why wouldn't a standard OAP bus pass be valid?

Slightly factitious, but it's not a standard bus service.

Agree it's not right, but that's what happens when public service funding gets squeezed by the government.

Imagine if there wasn't pointless protests about Trump whipped up by Owen Jones. Would be more money in the coffers to fund getting OAPs to football.

[muirinho]

Presuming this is not a club policy and is therefore a decision solely made by Reading buses and/or RBC?

Just isn't right at all and something needs to be done about it. Why wouldn't a standard OAP bus pass be valid?

Slightly factitious, but it's not a standard bus service.

Agree it's not right, but that's what happens when public service funding gets squeezed by the government.

Imagine if there wasn't pointless protests about Trump whipped up by Owen Jones. Would be more money in the coffers to fund getting OAPs to football.

Imagine if Inland Revenue collected the money they should from the fat cats instead of "coming to arrangements". Imagine if megatons of money wasn't wasted on economically suspect vanity projects like HS2. Blah blah blah. How about we stick to the football, and leave the politics for elsewhere?

[No Fixed Abode]

Slightly factitious, but it's not a standard bus service.

Agree it's not right, but that's what happens when public service funding gets squeezed by the government.

Imagine if there wasn't pointless protests about Trump whipped up by Owen Jones. Would be more money in the coffers to fund getting OAPs to football.

Imagine if Inland Revenue collected the money they should from the fat cats instead of "coming to arrangements". Imagine if megatons of money wasn't wasted on economically suspect vanity projects like HS2. Blah blah blah. How about we stick to the football, and leave the politics for elsewhere?

Politics is relevant as it's 'forcing' RBC to charge over 65s to get to football on the bus.

Serious question - are disabled people being charged?

[muirinho]

Imagine if there wasn't pointless protests about Trump whipped up by Owen Jones. Would be more money in the coffers to fund getting OAPs to football.

Imagine if Inland Revenue collected the money they should from the fat cats instead of "coming to arrangements". Imagine if megatons of money wasn't wasted on economically suspect vanity projects like HS2. Blah blah blah. How about we stick to the football, and leave the politics for elsewhere?

Politics is relevant as it's 'forcing' RBC to charge over 65s to get to football on the bus.

Serious question - are disabled people being charged?

People who can't use standard transport can still use readibus - I don't know if there are any curtailments to that service, but haven't heard of any.

To be fair to RBC (not words I say often), the restrictions are bringing them in-line with their obligations - before that they were going above and beyond what they needed to. West Berks restricted OAP freebies in the summer.

And over 65's can still get to the football on standard services, albeit with a bit of a walk.