The ENCTS card should be used as a National Senior Railcard. This would save the annual fee and probably encourage people to use the discounted rail fares. When talking about a Senior Railcard to those without one, people see the £30 fee as a barrier to getting a Senior Railcard.
And therefore something needs to be done to stop older people from always being able to drive - have re-tests every 10 years say or something like that. It is just crazy that the older people who mainly vote conservative (aka less tax) and get free bus travel for which the bus company gets much less money from the government than the normal fare that people pay, are also the ones always complaining about bus routes dying out
Must say i prefer our way of doing this, as opposed to the German way of having different "categories" of service. A prime example being Wakefield to Leeds. If you rock up at Westgate wanting Leeds you can just get on whichever train arrives first, be it a Northern local or an LNER or XC intercity service. If local passholders could only use the Northern services they'd become overcrowded pretty quickly, whereas the LNERs have loads of space once they get this far North.
we just get toc restrictions
The Heart of Wales and the Cambrian north of Machynlleth still have winter-time free travel for holders of Welsh concessionary travel passes (October to March). The Conwy Valley and Wrexham - Hawarden Bridge have a similar scheme, but not seasonal.
tfw.wales
Your comment reads as though you only see ENCTS in money terms rather than a benefit to others. Whether a passenger is paying or using a concession pass, any user of the service has a right to and should be complaining about removal of essential services. As for bus companies' income, a recent post here calaimed that there are services where fares from 'normal' passengers (whether they vote Conservative or not) are insufficent to fund the service, and the bus company relies on the concession passholders through the payments from the local authority.
I'm sure that is true, but somebody here mentioned it a few months ago and in some ways it is believable, (@neilmc in post #39 has a similar feeling). An empty bus is far less profitable than one with a load of concession pass holders.
You make a hole on each end of the egg ......
Why have two schemes when one will do?
Disabled people have specific needs as a result they have very specific terms and conditions.
But in some places, the value of the reimbursement is so low that a bus full with concession holders is not profitable. Admittedly the length of the Yorkshire Coastliner service from Leeds to Scarborough/Whitby is atypical, but the company seriously looked at ways of legally excluding ENCTS users because for journeys starting in North Yorkshire (as @KenH observes in post 38), they were maybe getting 15-20% of the commercial fare.
So you remove the ENCTS passengers by legal (or illegal) methods, then the bus is empty and the service disappears. If the aim is to destroy what's left of bus services then that's the way to go.
Wonder how dalesbus do with their no ENCTS rule on some services. But the do offer a heavily discoubted day ticket for £3 rather than £10.
That £10.00 annual fee referred to in Greater Manchester also allows for travel on the services of the Manchester Metrolink to the holders of TfGM-issued ENCTS passes, from what friends in Greater Manchester with such TfGM-issued passes tell me.
It wouldn't be such a bad idea for an out of area disabled ENCTS holder pay a £10 add on to update their pass to travel on Metrolink.
That would be the responsibility of the area issuing their ENCTS passes to incorporate it.
Why not, instead of having today's myriad of Railcards just scrap the lot and reduce all fares by 25%?
Firstly, it is totally appropriate to target discounts at particular groups of passengers.
....with train services with "third class" sections clearly defined for the users of that particular railcard.....
