The Freedom Pass, its Impact and Costs

London’s Freedom Pass was introduced in 1973, and it has had a profound impact on the lives of Londoners, particularly, of course, those with a disability and those over state-pensionable age. But its very success may cast its future into doubt as the numbers and proportions of older people among London’s residents continues to increase, and as fares rise ahead of inflation.

Eligibility

Freedom Pass

Eligibility has changed somewhat over the years. Until April 2010, the pass was available to any London resident over the age of 60. Since then, the age threshold has risen in line with the state-pension age for women; it is currently 66, though it could rise further in future. Residents between 60 and 65 can pay £20 for a 60+ Oyster card, with all the benefits of the Freedom Pass within, but not outside, London. Eligibility for disabled people covers a wide range of disabilities, as defined in the Transport Act 2000.

Oyster 60+ card [photo: TfL]

There are currently around 1.1million people in London over the age of 66, and the great majority of them have a freedom pass. A further 187k people had a disabled person’s pass in 2024. Together they represent about 13% of London’s population. In 2024, they used their passes on 215 million bus journeys. That represents just under 12% of all bus journeys in London, some of which, of course, are made by people from outside London.

Validity

The Freedom Pass is often referred to colloquially as a bus pass. But it is more than that. Unlike in most other parts of the country, London’s Freedom Pass  covers travel on most other TfL services – the Underground and Overground, the Elizabeth Line, trams, and the Docklands Light Railway. Some of these services extend far beyond London, to Reading and Shenfield on the Elizabeth Line, for example, and to the far reaches of Metroland and to Epping on the Underground. Freedom Passes are valid on buses throughout England. They are also valid on railway services within Zones 1-6. They also provide an effective discount on the cost of services beyond Zone 6: travellers to and from Gatwick Airport, for example, can pay simply for their journey to or from the Zone 6 boundary.

Freedom Passes were originally valid for use TfL services only after 9am on weekdays and any time at weekends. The 9am restriction was removed in 2009, but it was reinstated during the Covid pandemic. Railway operators typically restrict use until 9.30am on weekdays and allow use at any time at weekends, as do many bus operators outside London.

Volumes of Usage

Usage of Freedom Passes in London is much higher than in other parts of the country. In 2024, the average pass was used 180 times on buses in London, as compared with 51 times for concessionary passes across England and 74 times in other metropolitan areas. Freedom pass usage represents about half the use of all concessionary pass usage on buses across England. It is worth noting, however, that rates of usage in London, as elsewhere, are significantly lower than they were before the pandemic: in London, average usage on buses was 239 in 2016.

Usage of Freedom Passes on other TfL services are much lower, both in absolute numbers and proportionately, than on buses. On the Underground, some 42 million journeys were made using Freedom Passes in 2024. This represents only 3.5% of all journeys on the Underground. It also means that the average Freedom Pass was used fewer than 40 times on the Underground in that year, though the figures suggest that the rate of usage is rising faster than for buses. On other TfL services, some 14 million journeys in total were made using Freedom Passes, with the proportions of all journeys and average rates of usage of Freedom Passes much lower than on the Underground, though again the rates seem to be rising faster than on buses. An estimated 13.5 million journeys were made on National Rail services, a 14% increase on the previous year. As might be expected, National Rail usage was concentrated in south London boroughs, where the Underground network is less dense than north of the Thames.

Costs and Funding

The Freedom Pass scheme is funded by the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Like other local authorities in England, they receive funding from the UK Government as part of their main revenue support grant, so that they can reimburse the costs that fall on transport operators – including TfL – in accepting passes instead of fare payments for travel. For London boroughs, that funding amounted in 2024 to some £230 million. Many boroughs also use income from parking charges to contribute towards the cost of Freedom Passes.

Freedom Passes are administered by London Councils, the representative body for all 32 boroughs and the City of London. It issues the passes and makes an annual assessment to settle and apportion the costs of the scheme and the contributions from each borough. Its administrative costs are met almost wholly by the fees charged for replacement cards.

In line with guidance set by the Government, the reimbursement to TfL, train operators and other services is based primarily on the revenue they do not collect in fares because Freedom Passes are used instead. This in turn is based on the number of journeys and the average level of the fares foregone. A separate element covers additional costs to operators for which they would otherwise receive no payment, such as additional bus capacity and administrative costs. Each element in the formula is complex and subject to constant review. The settlement for the current year is £339 million, an increase of 16% on 2024-25. The lion’s share of that sum (£314 million) goes to TfL

Usage and average fares data across each mode of transport is also used to apportion the costs between boroughs; and the amounts vary considerably from over £15 million in Brent and Ealing, to £5 million in Kingston and in Barking and Dagenham. There are also varying rates of increase as between boroughs from year to year.

There are concerns, however, that a combination the rise in the number of London residents over state-pension age, inflation, and fare increases at RPI+1%, will add substantially to the costs of the scheme over the next five years. London Council’s modelling of these effects suggests that by 2030, costs will have increased by £180 million, to a total of £520 million. London Councils also suggest that such an increase is “unsustainable in the context of current local government funding”. So what will have to give if a scheme that has run so successfully, and provided such value for a substantial and growing proportion of London’s residents, is to survive for the next fifty years?