http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

in london it is easier, they have public transportation

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"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exist elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Calvin to the Hobbes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

Relative to the news-story above every city, town, shire and part of Britain offers this service.

The story starts "Injured war veterans are to get free travel on London's transport network, it has been announced." (SNIPED)..

In the UK every person who is able to show a disability and makes an application to their local council has the oppourtunity to recieve a free local buss / rail / metro pass. (This is usually a single page form that requires health information and their doctors details.)

The story above is misleading as anyone injured or disabled in the UK who will continue to be so for a period has this right.

(Whether this right percists is another matter but it is legally in action across the UK at the moment.)


"War Veterans" with disabilities have the same rights as any other person in the UK.

I think it insulting that "London" should try to make out they are doing a good thing for our injured armed services when those people already have that right....


(PS: Birmingham / UK has an excellent local transport service in which it's disabled and long term injured population have access via local transport to the whole conurbation across the West Midlands that covers an area of over 12 million people <Geographically many times larger than London.>)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

Relative to the news-story above every city, town, shire and part of Britain offers this service.

The story starts "Injured war veterans are to get free travel on London's transport network, it has been announced." (SNIPED)..

In the UK every person who is able to show a disability and makes an application to their local council has the oppourtunity to recieve a free local buss / rail / metro pass. (This is usually a single page form that requires health information and their doctors details.)

The story above is misleading as anyone injured or disabled in the UK who will continue to be so for a period has this right.

(Whether this right percists is another matter but it is legally in action across the UK at the moment.)


"War Veterans" with disabilities have the same rights as any other person in the UK.

I think it insulting that "London" should try to make out they are doing a good thing for our injured armed services when those people already have that right....


(PS: Birmingham / UK has an excellent local transport service in which it's disabled and long term injured population have access via local transport to the whole conurbation across the West Midlands that covers an area of over 12 million people <Geographically many times larger than London.>)

Well the article also says:

Under the new scheme, veterans and widows who are not eligible for a freedom pass are expected to save an average of £200 each a year.

So the veterans may not be covered under the rules that exist in Brum/West Mids.

Not sure where you got your figures on the relative sizes of West Mids (348 sq mi) vs London (609 sq mi), or their population size (London 7.5m vs West Mids 2.6m). If you're talking about the region, rather than the county, then, yes the geography is larger (WM region is 5,020 sq mi), but its population is still smaller (5.2m) than London's. However, this would be a little misleading when comparing travel permits, as in Brum, these are provided by Centro, which covers the county and not the region, and in London by TfL which covers the Greater London area.

Having lived in Brum for 2 years myself, and in London for somewhat longer, I'd say that public transport (mass transit in US parlance) in the capital, while not perfect, is somewhat better.

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I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

Relative to the news-story above every city, town, shire and part of Britain offers this service.

The story starts "Injured war veterans are to get free travel on London's transport network, it has been announced." (SNIPED)..

In the UK every person who is able to show a disability and makes an application to their local council has the oppourtunity to recieve a free local buss / rail / metro pass. (This is usually a single page form that requires health information and their doctors details.)

The story above is misleading as anyone injured or disabled in the UK who will continue to be so for a period has this right.

(Whether this right percists is another matter but it is legally in action across the UK at the moment.)


"War Veterans" with disabilities have the same rights as any other person in the UK.

I think it insulting that "London" should try to make out they are doing a good thing for our injured armed services when those people already have that right....


(PS: Birmingham / UK has an excellent local transport service in which it's disabled and long term injured population have access via local transport to the whole conurbation across the West Midlands that covers an area of over 12 million people <Geographically many times larger than London.>)

Well the article also says:

Under the new scheme, veterans and widows who are not eligible for a freedom pass are expected to save an average of £200 each a year.

So the veterans may not be covered under the rules that exist in Brum/West Mids.

Not sure where you got your figures on the relative sizes of West Mids (348 sq mi) vs London (609 sq mi), or their population size (London 7.5m vs West Mids 2.6m). If you're talking about the region, rather than the county, then, yes the geography is larger (WM region is 5,020 sq mi), but its population is still smaller (5.2m) than London's. However, this would be a little misleading when comparing travel permits, as in Brum, these are provided by Centro, which covers the county and not the region, and in London by TfL which covers the Greater London area.

Having lived in Brum for 2 years myself, and in London for somewhat longer, I'd say that public transport (mass transit in US parlance) in the capital, while not perfect, is somewhat better.

Bobby.

Centro is a recent development in the past few years. Centro provides no more services than the local council run "WMT" (or "WuMPTy") use to. <Centro appeared after deregulation and in general has provided us with no more than a few extra private companies who run old and crusty coaches and busses.> [The primary services in the West Mids are still run by WMT.]

My point wasn't to say the West Midland's public transport service is better than London's.

(Our public transport systems serve different geographic populations in different ways.)

It was just to say that "Disability" passes were already available across the country.


If you are saying London is now giving free public transport passes to armed service widows then that will be great news to any woman that has lost their serving husband. (I assume that also means that any man who has lost a wife who was in the services will also get the same honour..).

As to veterans. The story suggests 2600 (including widows) will benefit. I would have imagined there were more than 2600 veterans and widows (and widowers?) that existed in London. (We are talking about all veterans and grieving spouses over the past 42 years.. = Any service person pre-60..)

My problem with the story is that it does not add up unless you take into account the sentence "injured war veterans....."

Are there only 2600 veterans and widows (widowers) in London?

Personally I think we should be supporting our armed service personel far better than offering them a free buss pass.

It's nice if they get a free pass but they shouldn't need such a petty hand out.

Forgive me if I question the validity of "news" stories.

If you could show me the majority of those 2600 people would not have otherwise been awarded a free buss pass (under the current disability / long term injury) laws or consessions I would celebrate London's move and promote the same to my local council here in Brum.


I didn't mean to turn the arguement into which region was better than the other.

Sorry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

[snip]
Sorry.

No need to apologize, I only did the fact checking on population and area, as when I lived in Brum in the mid 90's it was the countries 2nd largest city, with just over 1m people living there, and was a little surprised by your comment of 12m living in West Mids. I certainly don't want to get into a my (former) city is better than yours debate. From a mass transit/public transport perspective NYC beats both Brum and The Smoke, with the subway running 24/7, etc, etc.

As to the number, yes 2600 doesn't seem especially high, but then again there have not been too many deaths of in service military personnel in the past 42 years (NI, Falklands/Malvinas, Iraq I and II, Afghanistan, Kosovo).

UK service fatalities in Faklands/Malvinas were 255, with a further 700 or so, over the 30 year period of The Troubles, and 24 (or 33 if the friendly fire incident is not included in the 24) in Iraq I.

With this in mind, it would seem a total of 5,000 fatalities would, if anything, be an overestimate. If we assume that all KIA servicepeople were married and service widows/widowers are evenly distributed amongst the UK population, it would mean something like 625 of their number would live in London, thus there's about 2,000 former military personnel, that did not qualify for free travel passes as a result of disability, but were injured in action, living in London.

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I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that ...

Having lived in Brum for 2 years myself, and in London for somewhat longer, I'd say that public transport (mass transit in US parlance) in the capital, while not perfect, is somewhat better.

Bobby, you must be joking!!!! Under "Red Ken" the transport situation in London has got immensely worse!!! I lived there for 30 years & also worked on the London Underground when it was London Transport. This TfL business is total C**p!!!

AND whoever designed those "Hoover" buses should be SHOT!!! Since the transport in London was deregulated, any T**t & their cohorts can set up a transport business.

Even though I no longer live there, I travel down on business every week & still cannot see any improvements whatsoever!!!

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7476849.stm

How many other cities do this?

in london it is easier, they have public transportation

Aristo, are you telling us that you do not have any "Trams/Buses/Trains" in your country?

how do you get about asides from using a car/bicycle/legs?

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