At the weekend I went to Cheshire to stay with my son's family, and on Sunday we were going to Manchester to eat out. We took the children aged 9 and 11 in our car. We drove to Sale Water Park and used the Metrolink as the girls had never been on a tram. Finding fare options is however a nightmare.
For trains the children would have been allowed to pay half fare, no questions asked.
For the tram we could buy a family ticket BUT an 11-15 year old needs proof of ID. So to comply with this ridiculous policy I took the older girl's passport, even though she clearly looks nothing like 16, but you never know when some jobsworth might insist on it. In the event we did actually undergo a ticket check and weren't challenged, so maybe I was a bit paranoid, having read so many horror stories on this site.
However, if we had been travelling by bus the older girl would have had to pay the adult fare as she doesn't have an i-go card and such a thing is not available unless you live in Greater Manchester. Apparently, a passport will not do. I have never seen this kind of restriction anywhere - well, until I looked at the West Yorkshire PTE website. This seems to be catching on, but not in Merseyside yet?
I don't like to see my grandchildren being potentially cheated should they decide to venture into a PTE area by having to buy adult tickets when they are clearly children.
Of course, here in Cumbria Stagecoach just cheats all children irrespective of where they live as they have to pay more than adult jobseekers and the child fares would actually be much higher than an equivalent adult journey in a PTE area - needless to say you hardly ever see anyone other than the non-paying elderly on local buses!
For trains the children would have been allowed to pay half fare, no questions asked.
For the tram we could buy a family ticket BUT an 11-15 year old needs proof of ID. So to comply with this ridiculous policy I took the older girl's passport, even though she clearly looks nothing like 16, but you never know when some jobsworth might insist on it. In the event we did actually undergo a ticket check and weren't challenged, so maybe I was a bit paranoid, having read so many horror stories on this site.
However, if we had been travelling by bus the older girl would have had to pay the adult fare as she doesn't have an i-go card and such a thing is not available unless you live in Greater Manchester. Apparently, a passport will not do. I have never seen this kind of restriction anywhere - well, until I looked at the West Yorkshire PTE website. This seems to be catching on, but not in Merseyside yet?
I don't like to see my grandchildren being potentially cheated should they decide to venture into a PTE area by having to buy adult tickets when they are clearly children.
Of course, here in Cumbria Stagecoach just cheats all children irrespective of where they live as they have to pay more than adult jobseekers and the child fares would actually be much higher than an equivalent adult journey in a PTE area - needless to say you hardly ever see anyone other than the non-paying elderly on local buses!
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