Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his letter to the Mayor on London of 3 June 2020 on ending of free travel for under 18 year olds in London, if he will place in the Library a copy of the academic research referred to in concluding that young people using the free travel concession made up half of all bus users during the morning rush hour, many of them for extremely short journeys which would not have been made had they not been free.

The Government set a number of conditions alongside the funding provided to Transport for London to reduce demand on public transport so that those who need to use services can do so safely. The temporary suspension of free travel for under 18s in London is one of those measures. The academic research to which the Secretary of State referred in his letter of 3 June 2020 is a study called ‘On the buses: a mixed-method evaluation of the impact of free bus travel for young people on the public health’ (full reference below). This makes clear that before the crisis, young people using the free travel concession made up half of all bus users during the morning rush hour, many of them for extremely short journeys which would not have been made had they not been free.

Research reference

Green J, Steinbach R, Jones A, et al.

Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library; 2014 Feb

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK263964/