While there are no plans at present to extend statutory concessionary travel, local authorities retain the ability to offer discretionary concessions. This includes concessionary travel on other modes of transport in their area, over and above the statutory minimum, at their own expense.
Our current focus is on the successful implementation of the new all-England bus concession from 1 April. However, although we have not conducted a detailed consideration of the feasibility or cost of further extensions, we have developed some outline cost estimates based on broad assumptions. These suggested that the annual cost of extending statutory concessionary travel nationally to rail could be at least £250 million; to trams and light rail systems about £15 million, and to demand responsive community transport services at least a further £25 million.
Given the large number of inquiries we receive about the cost of extensions we have recently commissioned some research to provide a more robust estimate of various costs. This will allow us to give more detailed response to similar inquiries in the future. We expect this work to be completed in the next few months.