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Public Transport

I am sure that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will raise that point with the train operating companies. Some £1 billion is being spent on concessionary travel, which was mentioned by many Members. I hope that they will rejoice in the fact that people over 60 and eligible disabled people can now use their bus passes anywhere in the country. That gives older people enormous freedom, but I sometimes feel that certain Members are a bit grudging in their support for it. We have allocated an extra £212 million for 2008-09, rising to £217 million and £223 million in the following years, to travel concessions in England. That is enough to fund about 200 million additional bus journeys in local authority areas across England. When we consulted local authorities on how the scheme should be extended, they asked us to provide a special fund rather than allocating money through the rate support grant, which we agreed to do. We then consulted the authorities on how they wanted the money to be distributed, giving them four or five options, and we have since distributed it on the basis chosen by most of them. I can tell our seaside colleagues, the hon. Members for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr. Goodwill) and for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), that the allocation took account of the number of overnight visitors, which is greater in some areas. I think that local authorities should welcome the fact that they can attract visitors, because of the knock-on effect on their local economies. Although some welcome it, others sometimes complain.