Camden New Journal - Letters: Freedom Pass

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 12 July 2007

Without passes, each journey is an ordeal

•AS a very new recipient of a Freedom Pass I wish to enter the debate. As a very long-term resident of this lovely city I have spent much in excess of whatever free journeys I am about to take. A lot of us still walk and actually enjoy it, you know.
But it isn’t the monetary aspect which is so beneficial. When one’s fingers, eyes and balance are not as co-ordinated as they have been, this card is a wonderful thing.
No longer do I and countless and others have to have on hand the exact money and be forced to get tickets from a machine often clogged up with ring pulls and other ephemera. If we have Oyster cards we have to keep them topped up and if we cannot see the message which comes up on the bus screen then we hold an often aggressive queue of people up while we fumble for money – and God help us if we are at a stop which only takes tickets from the clogged-up machines.
Before we leave the house we have to be equipped with change, including the necessary pound coin to fumble with a shopping trolley.
I no longer take my white stick because it is ignored by everyone and I have reached the level of having to restrain myself from beating the next mountain biker who whooshes up from behind.
Instead, I have developed strategies of my own. Very few people acknowledge the existence of a white stick, so it is wonderful to zap a card on to a machine and get to a shop which demands that you insert a pound coin in order to shop there.
I think that if anyone attempts to stop the Freedom Pass then we should all, and I mean all of us, get on to buses at 3.30 to 4 on a weekday afternoon in term time and refuse to pay and take our tea with us and travel to the outer reaches of Freedom Pass territory till our geriatric bedtime.
I would also like to investigate the use of a Freedom Pass-related magnet-type thing which we could use with ease on the ubiquitous shopping trolleys.
CHRISTINE BODY
Steeles Road, NW3

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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