Pensioners’ passes face axe in Metro cuts

Jul 31 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

METRO passes for pensioners are likely to be scrapped as transport bosses prepare for multi-million pound funding cuts.

Job losses are also likely after Metro bosses briefed staff on the difficult decisions ahead as they await Government funding cuts.

Nexus, which employs around 700 people, will face cuts despite recently being handed £350m to refurbish stations and trains.

It is expected that a special grant previously handed out by the Government to pay for elderly concessionary travel will be withdrawn.

The move means thousands of pensioners face being priced out of regular Metro use, as well as the potential to cut other concessions for health workers and children.

Metro’s Gold Card is available to passengers aged 60 and over. Costing just £12 a year it allows free Metro travel from 9.30am Monday to Friday and all day at weekends and on public holidays.

It is feared the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review this autumn will bring in cuts of between 20% to 40% over three years.

As a result, Nexus say, they expect the five Tyne and Wear councils to cut transport support from 2011.

Privately bosses say they will make savings of at least 10%, and while they hope to protect frontline services, they admit it is inevitable that they may be hit in some form.

While Nexus say there is no way of knowing what the 10% cuts will mean in terms of job losses, they are working on the basis of cutting one in 10 jobs. It is thought the job losses could be carried out on a voluntary basis, with staffing changes introduced from April next year.

Union bosses have warned they will do what is necessary to defend jobs at risk.