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Away days out of London a Green Line thing of the past
• JOHN Gulliver (Starter for 10: Who introduced the Freedom Pass first? April 24) says that the Irish were ahead of us in providing free travel for pensioners.
Yes, but they were also “ahead” of us in a less felicitous way – public transport outside urban areas is very poor in Ireland (no doubt a reflection of 19th century depopulation).
Londoners seeking a day out in the surrounding countryside have a much harder task than they used to, since London Transport lost its “green” buses information in London about rural buses has been virtually non-existent. The Green Line network that would have provided free travel for pensioners has almost collapsed and passengers are priced off early morning trains out of London, even though they are travelling against the peak.
To give an example, in 2006 there was extensive coverage in the national press of a proposal, later withdrawn, to charge for visits to Valley Gardens in Windsor Great Park, which is noted for its spring time floral displays.
Motivated by this I decided to pay a visit but, because of the distance of Valley Gardens from normal bus routes, I was exhausted by the time I got on the bus back to Windsor. In 2007 a special bus service was introduced, though it didn’t start till after the rhododendrons had finished, and received no publicity in London – I only discovered it while looking at the operator’s website for a completely different reason.
After less than three months the service was suspended owing to the foot and mouth outbreak, even though there are no livestock in the relevant area, and it never resumed because it was felt that not enough people were using the service, even though this is surely fully explained by the fact that nobody knew about it.
Simon Norton,
Howitt Close, NW3
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