Bus fares 2 quid

Should have free buses at 60.

Get old folk off road and keep them moving.

Cheap trains too, max fair 5er over 60s off peak.

Just a thought.


2 squids is OK,

Your right Donnie London  Wales and Scotland have it I believe

Mrs gets Bulk tickets,  so Saving will only be About 20 a Month savings ,still its something

as you know plenty up here use the buses hopefully more folks will

If you're over 60 you'd drive as you might get there before you're dead.
You're obviously from "oop north".
Try googling "London buses stink" for an insight into free travel for the over 60's.

ps The tube is even worse.

I have a bus pass but have not yet used it. There are no buses that will take me to AND BRING ME BACK from the places that I go. Perhaps once or twice a year I could sacrifice a few hours to use a bus but until I am too old to drive, I can't see the point.
As for subsidising pubs and clubs but not restaurants, cafes or corner shops, I am furious. Where do drugs change hands? Pubs and clubs and music venues or lunchtime cafes? My tax will be used to subsidise dens of vice but none of the premises that I might visit. If that is a priority of Mr Burnham, heaven help us.

I have a bus pass and only ever use it to take my granddaughter on short round trips, she loves buses,
and every other kind of vehicle. I rather like being driven, it gives you chance to look around.
I searched London buses stink, it sounds dreadful.

London Buses are full of the usual FILTH , so of course their gonna stink

A few French towns have free buses.

Stringy knows 

I was down landen not long ago got trains buses and tube and just tapped card.. All day travel under a tenner multy use.

All clean, friendly and fun, as were staff.

Simples.

Even Mamdani couldn't make the buses free and he's a glorious communist.

Donny should try living in Landen or being a commuter, might have a different view then.

Not really 'simples' then? 'fun' seems a bit of a stretch tbf.

20 % OFF Boozer business tax Now

Its all a far Cry from we want your Pension and heating Money

Starmer Reeve and the other Jalopies on the Front Bench thought they had free reign

To impose their Starmerism on the people of Britain

Burnham has a couple of years lets see how he Goes

Migration a big Issue , probably little will be done

But Little has been done for a Long time by all parties .

Don't succumb to the gaslighting.

Positives So far

Drill Baby Drill
Bus Fare savings
Hospitality Industry Help
Vat off Fuel Bills

I mentioned I signed up to a domestic dual fuel deal on Tuesday.

There is 14 day cooling off (pardon the pun), so I ran the same query today. £100 per year higher than it was on Tuesday !

Same supplier, still the cheapest.

Obviously far higher than the unfunded tax cut.

I see nowt wrong Cider thus far TBH

My Mrs is £240 a year better off 

Money Talks 

Burnhams a Leftie , I have no Clue what Team Starmer were , The word Rancid covers them

I don't know what the offician gaurdian / bbc message is, but the Tories introduced the bus fair cap. Labour pulled it, now they've restored it. Back to where we were, apart from the expense of administering and implementing all of the changes.

5% off electric
£2 bus fare cap
20% off business rates for pubs and clubs

None of this is happening. It is all gaslighting

Labour cannot be allowed to pretend like the last two years didn't happen, memory holed by nudge tactics.

I urge you to wait until the actual plans are implemented.

Why move VAT on electricity, and not the far more important gas. People can cope with not having lights on, they can't cope with not having the heat on. If you had to pick only one (why?), gas is the obvious priority.

Yes gaslighting, they are trying to portray themselves as a new administration that has just won a mandate in a new election. All the celebratory nonsense, ably assisted by the legacy media of course.

You'd be forgiven for realising that their leader has been humiliated out of office, and they had to bring someone in who wasn't even a MP to replace him.

And they have given him six weeks induction. Almost like it was well planned ages ago !

More importantly, Kemi is complaining that, Burnham hasn't answered her letter!!!!

There's nothing important, politically at least, involving Badenoch.

"Labour cannot be allowed to pretend like the last two years didn't happen"

Not much chance of that happening Cider , they practically Destroyed the Party

When I first started pointing out That Starmer was a Serious Problem

Many on here tried to Ignore it,infact I was even shouted down  , it didn't take them long to realise

What a disaster he was

We Now have Robert Jenrick saying the Royal Navy will be used to turn back the Dinghies , More chance me being sent out in a Rowing Boat IMO

they only have to put the warships in the channel. maybe one gives it a go, but unlikely.

the obstacle would be the wets in charge of the civil service, navy and union types. be like the bibby again. so you need politicians with a backbone and a mandate to do it.

Three days in and Burnham has given Cider a bloody thrombo

Has the Messiah said how he's going to fund all this Nobby ?

It's all tinkering anyway,the cut in rates for pubs equals £20 a week, if any of them are in danger of going under, welcome as any extra cash is, that's not going to save them is it ?

£45 a year saving for the average family due to the VAT coming off the electric bill is less than a quid a week.

The 2 quid bus fare malarkey is only regurgitating initiatives that went before. It's not the cost of bus services that stop people using them as much as they probably should, it's the lack of frequency and reliability of local services together with not being as convenient as going by car instead.

The 2 quid bus fare malarkey is only regurgitating initiatives that went before. It's not the cost of bus services that stop people using them as much as they probably should, it's the lack of frequency and reliability of local services together with not being as convenient as going by car instead.

You've forgotten what it's like to be young and skint, or maybe you've never had to count every pound?

The £2 cap will make a huge difference to the millions who are not affluent.

On the lack of frequency and reliability, if you increase the customer base then frequency and reliability inevitably increase.


Increased mobility leads to increased economic activity.

A very simplistic view if i may say so escapee.

Did you miss the fact that the tories introduced this in 2023 only for Starmer to put it back up to £3 ?

Dropping the price to £2 back in 2023 hardly had a major effect on encouraging people to use the bus more did it ? If they have cars they won't give them up to travel on the bus, that's all there is to it.

I come from a working class background btw so don't lecture me about privilege. My "young and skint" days as you call them were under the Wilson and Callaghan governments of the mid/late 70s. Then Maggie came along and things started to get better

I ain't lecturing you, nor do I need your history lecture either.


I was just expressing a view that the £2 cap will make a huge difference to non-affluent people and that increased population mobility leads to increased £ econimic activity.

Use of public transport has very little correlation with affluence. Naturally, people choose the most convenient option available.

It is socialism 101. The cost to ride on public transport should reflect the cost of running it, pro rated for the journey. Simple as that.

'non-affluent people' as you put it get plenty of handouts from taxpayers. to pay for things like transport. The anxious get cost free cars and taxis.

Feeling underserving of PIP & UC

Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

I have been diagnosed with Selective Mutism & Autism, alongside depression, with suspected OCD. I have the highest rate of both PIP and UC, but feel I do not deserve it. I hate using the money and its perks and feel like a fraud

What do you all personally think?

You don't want to know what I think, buddy.

Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person who can speak normally becomes unable to speak in specific social situations, often interfering with daily life and learning.

Dream on Donny, the other parties are still terrified of Reform. And of course they tell plenty of porkies of their own.

Try living and/or working in London to get a true picture of the capital rather than basing your judgement on a visit for a couple of days.

YHTL London receives around seven times more transport spending per head of population than the rest of the UK.

That's why the buses and tubes are so frequent you don't need a timetable.

Well, yeah nobby, but it's a beautiful system.

Throw enough money at something, get somebody half decent to run it, and it works.

I'm struggling to think of a city with a better transport system.

Try using the flea pit tubes outside ZONE 1

Starmer probably decent, Khan (a snake) half decent. You're not a great judge of decent.

Poor saddo has no comprehension skills so rants.

Half-decent" is an informal phrase meaning something is reasonably good, acceptable, or of satisfactory quality. It suggests that something meets a baseline level of quality or skill without necessarily being outstanding or spectacular.

Hardly a rant, try and express your thoughts a little better.

Try not to bite without thinking, or if you really are as thick as you appear, ask for help, before proving you are an idiot, repeatedly.

Nerve touched, ha ha.

Leave him alone , he thought it was FUN using the Tube   I thought the same when I was 10

I'm just back from a wake, I've had several pints and still have more lucidity than that idiot.

TfL and GLA top UK local authority debt list with combined £20bn borrowing

New analysis from the TaxPayers’ Alliance shows TfL holds almost £14 billion of the record high total £155 billion of local authority debt in the UK

Transport for London (TfL) was the most indebted local authority body in the UK last year, it has emerged.

New analysis from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) shows the transport body holds almost £14 billion of the record high total £155 billion of local authority debt in the UK.

TfL officials said the current £13.9 billion of debt was down to borrowing to undergo “a range of transformational projects” on the network, including upgrading Underground stations, ensuring accessibility improvements, upgrading signalling and rolling out new trains on the DLR and Piccadilly Line.

They also noted that for the past three years, TfL has made an operating surplus.

The transport body is funded through a mixture of central and local government grants, fares income from travellers, and road network compliance charges such as Congestion Charge and ULEZ.


https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tfl-gla-local-authority-debt-list-borrowing-b1289858.html

Don't wind the wee f@nny up, cider

Painting a fleet of buses yellow as a part of public transport rebrand has cost local authorities in one county more than half a million pounds.

The vehicles were re-coloured for the launch of the Bee Network, an integrated transport plan launched last year by the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

Under the plan, deregulated parts of the bus network have been brought back under local control.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed the yellow rebrand of 93 buses cost about £558,000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cl40pdy41zzo

;)

An estimated £6,000 to £7,000 has been spent per bus to cover materials and contractor fees, at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) spokesman said.

The FOI by the Local Democracy Reporting Service showed the cost of advertising the Bee Network on one tram was in the region of £20,000.

Cider couldn't wind up a watch.

Great to see beer doesn't improve your intelligence.

Who knew, idiot

After using the Tube in London it usually takes a couple of days to get the soot out of your snotter

Donny biting and resulting to insults again

resorting

Dixie spots saddo digging and grabs a spade to help him

Highlighting the depth of his hole

What TfL don't tell you.
Staff cost are £2Bn a year and they have 28,000 full time employees. Average cost £71,000 per annum and thy go on strike for pay and conditions ?.
They showed a tiny surplus of £79m but this was after receiving £3bn in grants, no doubt funded by congestion charge & ULEZ.
The £13.9bn of debt was because of "a range of transformational projects" even though they only spent £1.2bn last year.

I suppose their staff must be thankful that they aren't a business because they'd go bust.

There's only one (ars)hole on here Donny and you were "dug" decades ago

Staff cost are £2Bn a year

I'm fairly sure they spend more than that just on foreign IT consultants a year, their whole IT department is a massive waste of money.

TFL should run at a huge operating profit, given £billions from fares, and the revenue from adverts also runs into £billions.

Oh another half wit attempting humour having been caught attempting to dig a fellow half wit out of a hole.

You'll be hoping to get replies to your script writer advert

Sooner the better

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/quarterly-performance-report-q2-2025-26.pdf

It's all there in black and white.

It's all there in black and white.

paraphrasing: "Operating revenue £16+ Billion per year."


As I said, TFL should be running at a huge operating profit.

I seem to recall Boris Johnson gave them a bailout

The proposals include higher council taxes, an expanded congestion charge zone and a hike in Tube and bus fares.

Mr Johnson told the Commons on Wednesday: "The current mayor of London had effectively bankrupted TfL before coronavirus had even hit and left a massive black hole in its finances.

"Any need to make up that deficit is entirely down to him, it is entirely his responsibility.

"Any expansion of the congestion charge or any other measure taken to improve the finances of TfL are entirely the responsibility of the bankrupt current Labour mayor of London."

The 10 Downing Street spokesperson said TfL's debt has increased 30% since Mr Khan became mayor.

"TfL debt is now a record high of £12bn and now spends £402m a year on debt interest," the spokesperson said.

Andy Crapp wants more 'devolution'. It's not fair that socialists only go bankrupt in certain regions and cities.

Mr spaffer, lol

The overwhelming majority of TfL’s borrowing was incurred under the previous mayoralty, throughout which TfL accumulated £7billion of debt – vastly more than in all other years of TfL’s existence combined – so most of the interest that TfL is currently paying results from borrowing when the current prime minister was Mayor of London.”

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 10 February 2026 asking for information about revenue from London Ultra Low Emission Zone.



Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.



In 2025, the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scheme generated £180 million in total revenue. Daily charge payments accounted for £123 million, representing 68%, and Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) contributed the remaining £57 million (32%) which is after adjustment for bad debt. 



With respect to the cost of operating ULEZ, when considering all associated expenditure, including depreciation of the costs for implementing the scheme, the total operating cost is approximately £100 million for the period from 5 January 2025 to 3 January 2026.

The problem seems to be that Labour are 'trying' albeit in small doses.This seems to gall the reform lads who only seem to care about 'boats'.
Another few measures please Mr Burnham to wind them up even more.

Gravy boats, that is rather good, if I do say so myself

They are small 'helps',i doubt they are too unfunded and probably the very most they can 'give'.
Not a lot for people to ask ie some help and to me they are giving rather than taking(atm) which is good for many.

They are unfunded, unless you can explain exactly how they are being paid for?

How many people pay for bus journeys out of their own money, would you estimate? ie not getting any taxpayer handouts.

Manipulation is easy. Especially folks like yourself that want to be manipulated.

As I explained elsewhere, since the 5% electricity discount was announced, my electricity quote went up 10%

Socialism 101, take half your money and be thrilled when they give a bit of it back to you

But that is exactly my point,they are giving back albeit small rather than taking.
I still stick with that this galling people because of their anti labour politics and their reform bias on the thread.

It is a parallel universe!

Instead of taking 100 and 'giving back' 50, why not just take 50 ?

Actually you'd only need to take 40, as you wouldn't need to pay 10 to employ a load of dullards on gold plated pensions to administer the handouts.

I think Income tax,Vat,National insurance etc are quite established at this stage,mandatory and inescapable,the crumbs 'given back' are welcome to many in the current economic scenario.

Yes of course, tax is required to run the country.

Do you not see how daft it is to have tax collected from your money, and then a bit of what you've paid out is returned, after being scalped.

Traces back to noo labour and Brown, 'in work benefits'. Absolute socialist nonsense but designed to keep people attached to the teet of the state.

Maybe we could just be paid in groceries and rent, cut out all of the middle men, then we could spend all day waving at boats.

These first few days of "The Burnham Catastrophe" (), have unexpectedly revealed  that Reform UK supporters have a deep seat hatred of the millions of brits living paycheque to paycheque.


Burnham has made a couple of token gestures to help out those worst hit by the cost of living 'crisis' and refukers one and all are outraged.

Don't spend on smelly buses cos the country is gonna be a white minority anytime soon

Not seen anyone 'outraged'. Not like they were with KK's 'unfunded' tax cuts.

Quite evidently these unfunded little sweeteners are designed to control the narrative, alongside their mates in the legacy media.

I've stated it is better politics, but it would be quite the challenge to be as bad a 2tk.

I've also acknowledged that I have been calling for the binning of vat from domestic energy for over 5 years. BUT why only electricity and not gas?

Nothing substantive has changed. Yet.

Cider
Cider24 Jul 26 10:03Joined: 29 Aug 02 | Topic/replies: 69,900 | Blogger: Cider's blog
Yes of course, tax is required to run the country.

Do you not see how daft it is to have tax collected from your money, and then a bit of what you've paid out is returned, after being scalped.

Traces back to noo labour and Brown, 'in work benefits'. Absolute socialist nonsense but designed to keep people attached to the teet of the state.

Bribing voters with their own money is the oldest trick in the book. The EU did something similar with our contributions when we were a member.

----you-have-to-laugh---24 Jul 26 11:44Joined: 06 Jul 10 | Topic/replies: 68,901 | Blogger: ----you-have-to-laugh---'s blog
Maybe we could just be paid in groceries and rent, cut out all of the middle men, then we could spend all day waving at boats.


I'm not sure the dinghy boys would be able to see you from 300 miles away Donny

I could get there on a 2 pund bus

Not from Durham you couldn't