London to review £372m a year Freedom Pass

by Kevin Borras

The free travel benefits enjoyed by more than a million older Londoners are to be reviewed because of the soaring cost of the Freedom Pass. The pass provides free travel on all Transport for London services and national rail services within Greater London, says The Standard,and is funded by the 33 London boroughs but its cost is rising to £372m a year from April – an 11.8 per cent increase.

London Councils, the body that administers the Freedom Pass on behalf of the boroughs, is to carry out a review of the scheme and gather evidence for the likely impact of potential changes. Options could include increasing the age at which Londoners receive the Freedom Pass, making it means-tested or excluding national rail services within Greater London.

It was revealed in November that the cost of the Freedom Pass were due to soar by £40m in 2026/27 due to the impact of London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s fares hike and the growing number of Londoners entitled to a Freedom Pass.

A total of 1,210,238 Freedom Passes are currently in use, according to London Councils. The cost of each journey is effectively paid by the borough in which each journey starts.

The councils expect to foot the bill for more than 279m free journeys from April, including 221m bus journeys and 44.7m on the Tube.

Stephen Boon, chief operating officer at London Councils, which represents the 33 boroughs, said the Freedom Pass was a “more generous” travel benefit than that enjoyed by pensioners in the rest of the country.

“It’s more than a bus pass, which is what it is in the rest of the country,” he said. “It’s costing more than boroughs can afford.”

Mr Boon said the scheme’s costs could be reduced to £224m a year if the Freedom Pass was restricted to only offering free bus travel.

However this would require Parliament to change the Greater London Authority Act before this could happen, as under the current rules the Freedom Pass must include all TfL transport modes, including the Tube, London Overground, Elizabeth line and DLR.

(Picture: Paul Hutton/Highways News)