A senior citizen from South Yorkshire will start the trip of her lifetime tomorrow (Tuesday 1 April) by travelling from Berwick on Tweed to Land’s End - using her new English National Concessions bus pass.
Sixty-six year-old Christine Jackson, from Sheffield is making the journey across England to demonstrate how easy it is to use the new bus pass, which gives passengers free travel on local buses across the country.
Christine will begin the challenge on the day the new English National Concessions bus pass is introduced. She will travel with her friend retired doctor Manju Ghosh (who is from Greater Manchester).
It will take the duo 12 days to complete the challenge and they will pass through numerous English towns and cities including Newcastle, Darlington, Selby, York, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, Oxford, Bath, Dorchester, Penzance and Land’s End.
“We just wanted an adventure and the idea of travelling for free across England sounded like fun because we have never done anything like this before,” said Christine.
“I think the new National Concessions pass is a wonderful idea as it gives you the freedom to explore England and hopefully our challenge will encourage more people to get one if they haven’t already done so.”
Christine and Manju will use the travelling time to do their favourite hobby – the Guardian newspaper’s daily crossword.
She added: “A lot of people say the car helps them get from A to B, but what they don’t realise is how much wasted time they spend behind the wheel. I am a firm believer in public transport because on a bus you can relax, read your book, do the crossword and let someone else worry about the driving.”
The English National Concessions Pass offers senior citizens and disabled passengers free travel on local bus services anywhere in England from 09.30 until 23.00 on weekdays and all day at weekends and on Bank Holidays.
In South Yorkshire residents are also entitled to free travel from 09.00 on weekdays and all day at weekends and Bank Holidays on the following services:
• Any bus or tram within South Yorkshire
• Between stations on the South Yorkshire rail network
• To and from West Yorkshire on Northern Rail services (without changing trains in West Yorkshire)
• Into South Yorkshire by bus from neighbouring areas.
To claim this concession passengers must have a new style English National Concessions Pass. Last year South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) wrote to 225,000 people across South Yorkshire inviting them to apply for it.
All of these replies are being processed and new passes will be issued over the next two weeks. If passengers have not yet received their pass by 8 April they should call Traveline on 01709 51 51 51 or pop into any Travel South Yorkshire Information Centre. Passengers can use their existing passes to travel in South Yorkshire until 30 September.
Similarly if customers have not yet applied for the new English National Concessions Pass they can do so by popping into any Travel South Yorkshire Information Centre with proof of their age, address and two passport sized photographs.