Moray SNP News

45% OF MORAY’S UNDER-22S USING FREE BUS PASS RICHARD LOCHHEAD REVEALS

Moray’s MSP recently met with Peter Knight, the Managing Director of Stagecoach in the North East and was given an update on bus services in the local area.

He heard that certain services are slowly recovering post-Covid-19, but the number of bus journeys being made by people in Moray has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, although the introduction of the under 22 bus pass has made a positive difference.

In Moray around 45% of young people have taken up the opportunity to apply for a free bus pass with around 6,996 pass holders, who, as of Monday 3rd October, had made 206,827 journeys for free since the scheme was introduced back at the end of January.

Across the whole of Scotland, more than half of eligible young people have already benefited from a free bus pass and over twenty-one million free journeys have been made by under 22s.

Commenting Lochhead said:

"It is brilliant that so many children and young people in Moray are already benefiting from the Scottish Government's free bus travel and I want to make sure that even more young people take advantage of this by applying for their free pass at freebus.scot.

"This initiative is not only about helping our young people get about more often and more easily - whether that be local journeys or journeys right across Scotland - but it is also about embedding more sustainable travel behaviour from a young age which will support all of our efforts to tackle the climate emergency.

"It also is a key way of maintaining vital services in many areas, especially rural or outlying ones, and can provide help to people struggling with the cost of living crisis right now - by making travel affordable.

“From speaking to young people, I know that there is a big demand for more rural bus services. The bus companies advise that by signing up for a bus pass, young people can send a message about demand even where there is a lack of services at the moment because this is something that is taken into account when reviewing the viability of rural services.”