莱斯特:11-18岁小孩将有可能免费乘公交

Enoch

[Leicester Mercury 英文报道 7月31日]

如果是孩子是full time study的话

http://www.leicestermercury.co.u ... &pNodeId=132393

GIVE US FREE TRAVEL ON BUSES, SAY TEENAGERS

BY MARTIN ROBINSON
POLITICAL REPORTER

10:30 - 31 July 2008

A £3.45 million scheme to allow children between the ages of 11 and 18 to travel on buses free is to be considered for Leicester.

City council bosses have agreed to look into the scheme, which would apply to about 30,000 young people aged between 11 and 18 in full-time education.

It comes after Leicester members of the UK Youth Parliament sent them a petition asking for free travel or more cut-price tickets for young people.

Currently, the authority spends £450,300 a year on school bus travel.

It is estimated the new scheme would cost "at least" £3.45 million a year to run with more than £155,000 set up costs, said Jeff Miller, the city council's highways and transportation boss.

He said: "This proposal is consistent with the council's priorities to invest in our children and plan for people, rather than cars."

He has asked the council's ruling cabinet to agree to set up a task group to investigate whether such a scheme would work, and how to finance it.

This group would have to report back to the council before October and any scheme would not start before April 2010.

Regeneration and transport spokesman Patrick Kitterick said: "There isn't really funding available at the moment, but it does begin an interesting debate about encouraging young people to use different forms of transport other than the car."

He said the council could look at variations of the scheme which could cost less.

City taxpayers would probably have to foot the bill because the Government does not finance such projects - but the council is to write to Westminster asking it to pay money towards a scheme.

London is the only place in the country to have free travel scheme for young people.

Teenagers have backed the idea, but some have said they feared "bad apples" could cause more problems.

Jake Davies, 16, of Stoneygate, said: "It would be amazing because I could see lots more of my friends without asking for lifts because they all live all over the place.

"It's only a minority who behave badly on buses, so if they misbehave they should be banned and the rest can then enjoy it."

Krishna Uka, 17, of Scraptoft, said: "I don't have a job and I don't have any money coming in. I find it hard asking my parents to pay for the bus fares. The prices just went up again recently so free travel would make such a difference."

Bus operators Arriva and First offer a range of pre-paid student saver tickets offering unlimited travel on their own networks. They also offer discounts for children aged between five and 15.

First spokesman Steve Zanker said: "We would welcome something like this. We want to encourage bus use."

He said the company would want the power to deal with troublemakers.

Jayne Gardener, 54, from Kibworth, said: "I think it's a good way of getting more people to use public transport.

"It means teenagers won't be relying on their cars or on parents to give them lifts quite so much."

lemonbunny

不是小孩了 55