Bus company East Yorkshire is working with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to allow concessionary pass holders free travel to their COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
The national concessionary bus pass scheme, which allows free travel for older and disabled people, normally only allows travel after 9.30am.
The bus company and council have jointly made the decision to scrap the time limit for those who are travelling to early morning vaccination appointments.
Ben Gilligan, East Yorkshire’s Area Director, said:
“We’ve already been getting lots of calls from people looking for advice on travelling to vaccination appointments. As soon as we realised that some concessionary pass holders were having to travel earlier than their passes allowed, we got in touch with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to ask if we could allow them to travel before 9.30am, and they immediately agreed.”
“It’s great that we can play a small part in getting people vaccinated, and helping to beat this pandemic for good.”
Paul Abbott, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s head of housing, transportation and public protection, added:
“With the vaccine programme now well underway in the area, it made sense to work with East Yorkshire to allow free early morning travel to those who are currently in the priority groups for the vaccination.”
The new free early morning travel begins immediately. Passholders travelling to early appointments will need to show the bus driver their appointment letter or similar proof of their appointment, and then will be allowed to use their pass before 9.30am.
Travellers in the Hull City Council area already have no time limit on their passes, so they can also travel free to their vaccine appointment, no matter what time of day.
Advice on public transport to vaccination centres is available on East Yorkshire’s website www.eastyorkshirebuses.co.uk, or by ringing the company’s BusLine advice centre on 01482 59 29 29.
