Birthdays are a cause for celebration for some, striking the fear of getting older in others. I had a lovely day when I turned 22 a few weeks ago, but my main thought remained: “Damn, I can’t use my bus pass anymore.”
The Scottish Government introduced the free bus travel scheme for under 22s back in January 2022. I was in my second year of uni and classes were finally starting to get back to being in-person. I eagerly applied for my new Young Scot card – free travel to campus? Yes, please!
I don’t know exactly how much I’ve saved over the past two years thanks to the scheme, but it must be in the hundreds. In the middle of the cost-of-living crisis, free transport was a massive weight off my and many other’s shoulders.
The UL may be rubbish, but at least I wasn’t wasting money on it. It made me much more inclined to nip to campus for a few hours to get some work done even if I didn’t have a class.
As well as going to uni, I used my trusty bus pass to take me all over the country. Coaches to Glasgow, Edinburgh, even Aberdeen and Inverness – and it didn’t cost me a penny.
It feels especially cruel now that I’m working on my dissertation that my free transport has been ripped away from me. But I’m one of the lucky ones; students over 22 have been completely forgotten by the government.
In fact, last year NUS Scotland estimated that 311,000 students are not eligible for free bus travel. The majority of university students (55 per cent) are over 22 – the government clearly needs to do more.
With a student return on the UL costing £3.20, I fear my bank account will be taking a hit soon enough (imagine all the coffees I could be buying instead!). I guess I’ll just wait until I’m 60 to get it for free again. Or maybe it’s time I took up cycling…
Featured Image Credit: McGill’s
Film, media and journalism student. I like writing about my inability to eat gluten.
