New Deal on Bus Passes

THOUSANDS more North East pensioners and disabled people will be offered concessionary travel on the Metro under a new deal agreed by transport chiefs.

The Metro gold card concession, presently available for Tyne & Wear residents only, will be extended into Northumberland and County Durham from April.

The annual cost of a card will be pounds 25, which will give people in the two counties unlimited travel on the Metro for a year.

Meanwhile, the annual price will be frozen at pounds 12 for card holders in Tyne & Wear during 2008-09.

Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Authority (PTA) also agreed to freeze the price of weekday concessionary bus, Metro and ferry fares for children at 40p – or 50p for transfare tickets.

About 90,000 gold cards were issued last year in Tyne & Wear and the expansion of the scheme will help people in Northumberland and County Durham who use the Metro regularly.

The card will be available from Nexus through travel shops in Tyne & Wear. The price difference reflects the subsidy the PTA provides card holders in Tyne & Wear. PTA chairman Coun David Wood said: “Thanks to good financial management we are able to keep prices as they are.”

Nexus is to send out more than 200,000 new concessionary bus passes automatically to existing pass holders at the end of March. They will allow holders to travel on buses all over England for the first time.

(c) 2008 Evening Chronicle – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.