Twelve charities are demanding the Scottish Government extend free bus passes to cover special transport schemes used by the elderly and disabled.

The ‘A fare deal’ campaign – a coalition of 12 organisations including Help the Aged in Scotland and Capability Scotland – wants the current scheme to include demand-responsive community transport.

This involves services such as dial-a-bus and dial-a-ride schemes, often run by voluntary organisations.The charities believe thousands of older and disabled people are discriminated against as often they cannot use scheduled bus services, either because there are no services in their area, they live too far away from a bus stop, or they cannot get on the bus due to lack of disabled access.

They estimate that 2.6M passenger journeys are taken every year using demand-responsive community transport and many of these people would be entitled to free bus travel. Gail Brown, campaigns officer at Help the Aged in Scotland, said: ‘Thousands of older and disabled people have to restrict their journeys to essential trips and miss out on social, cultural and, in some cases, economic activities. It’s high time they got “a fare deal.”’

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