Letter: Restoration of the train concession

Time and again this, and the previous mayor, claimed that the restoration of the train concession was unaffordable.

In fact the latest incumbent claimed that to do so could cost as much as £46m! Thanks to Freedom of Information requests we now know the true costs of the concession in 2014 – less than £400,000. Following its withdrawal train usage plummeted along with the subsidies for the half fare.

Conveniently for those very much against restoring the concession the mayor forgot to inform the transport committee that there is a mechanism under the 1985 transport act which allows councils – and mayors – to introduce their own local concessions.

To add to this inexplicable lapse is the fact that according to the Assessment of the Gold Card, “Implementing such a scheme would also require operators to be willing and able to participate.” Which according to the assessment would take 18 months. The truth is, “14.6 .. under the Railways Act 1993 TOCs are also required to participate in any local authority‘s concessionary fare scheme providing there is no loss to the train operator. (p82)”

The last costs pre pandemic of the concession were 2018-19 = £167,779.64. So the concession could be restored by informing the TOC (Northern Rail) that an annual fee – negotiable around £170,000 would meet the requirement and provide, “… no loss to the train operator.” Or restore the concession at the original cost of £ 330,000 which would still be a bargain – £1.10 per pensioner per year.

Shamefully, we now know the Sheffield tram concession was saved for the elderly of Sheffield at the expense of the elderly of Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, all of whom, including Sheffield pensioners, could have retained travel into West Yorkshire as well as pre 9.30 bus travel.

The political choice was to make lives worse for 300,000.

The committee meets again in two months. This letter has been emailed to all members of the transport committee – including the evidence, FOI’s and reports which support it.

If they genuinely want to see lives improve they’ll agree to support the full restoration.

In reality there’s nothing to stop the concession being restored – there never was. And had a full impact assessment and consultation taken place instead of the now familiar underhand behaviour the concession could have remained and the extraordinarily expensive tram subsidy of £1.88m renegotiated.

And let’s not forget there was a concessionary underspend in the SYPTE budget of up to £2m – which mysteriously disappeared when the Freedom Riders group pointed it out.

It has to be said those who act in their own personal interests rather than in the public interest is a bad as those refusing to resign in the public interest. We currently see nine years later the tree scandal.

Isn’t it time we saw the best of the Labour Party with a full and speedy restoration by a fixed fee and just showing the ENCTS card?

Mike Smith

Park Grove, S70