"Aidan Stanger" wrote in message
...
Nick wrote:
"Ian Jelf" wrote...
writes
I know "Londoners" find this hard to believe, but many of us don't
wanty
to be part of your high-density overpopulated sprawling urban gloom.

But people there are probably happy with their co-ordinated public
transport and - when the time comes - Freedom Passes?

Whenever I have this debate about Bexley part of Greater London or not,
the
biggest noise always seems to be made about the Freedom pass!

Probably because the holders have got the most to lose, and will
fiercely resist any attempt to take it away.

Arguably, I think the freedom pass is overkill anyway; I would support
free
use of local buses to moderately distant locations, trains to central
London, and maybe tube travel in Z1 off-peak. In Bexley, I would guess
that
95% of Freedom pass owners use the train and tube extremely rarely, and
probably less than 50% use the buses regularly.

Do you know any Freedom pass owners? Your guess seems wildly low!

Yes, I know lots of Freedom pass owners, many of whom drive and never use
it; of the rest, most just use the local buses (local as in
Bexley/Bromley/Dartford/Woolwich).

What are the actual figures? My guess is low, but I suspect it might be of
the right order.

I don't believe pensioners
are at all bothered that they can travel to Uxbridge for free.

Maybe not Uxbridge, but certainly Kingston and Heathrow, despite the
truncation of the 726 at Bromley.

I don't think pensioners in Bexley have much interest or inclination to
travel to either of those places ;-)

How many
Freedom pass users regularly travel to Dartford and Bluewater and
contribute
to "out-of-region" retail spend I wonder :-)

Unlike normal bus passes, Freedom passes are not valid as far as
Bluewater. However, they are valid to Dartford and Swanley on the train
as well as on the bus. Hundreds use Freedom passes to get to Dartford
and Swanley markets, but that's hardly "out of region".

Ah, that's interesting and I didn't know that - not valid beyond Dartford
for Bluewater by bus? I am quite surprised at that. I am sure pensioners
around here would love to stay on the 96 to Bluewater and not be chucked off
at Dartford. So pensioners in Bexley can travel to Uxbridge for free, but
have to pay to go a few miles to Bluewater, hmm!

I agree with you that's it hardly out of region, but I was (pehaps too)
subltely hinting at how the daft the London/South East government regional
division is. Retail spend in Dartford and Swanley harms the spend figures
for "London" and boosts those for the "SouthEast" region. For similar
reasons it appears, Bexley (the council) seem absolutely terrfied of
promoting the proximity of Bluewater as a major benefit of living in Bexley,
partly because it means diverting spend outside the borough (OK, and they
want to promote their own shopping centres too, eg Bexleyheath, I agree with
that as well). However, living a few minutes from the biggest shopping
centre in Europe is a big benefit IMO.

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