Plymouth students told they are too old to qualify for a bus pass

“Pay The Bus Fare.
You are a bunch of Freeloaders.
Pay Your Way.”

“After reading the comments on here im puzzled by the amount of people that think only citybus run in plymouth. the fact is its only the past year they have said reduced fare to anyone under the age of 23 with a student union card before that is was only reduced to people under the age of 16, how did these mature students manage then?
Yes the no child fare before 9.30 was a joke but thats changing back to anytime from the 1st april, if your still thinking students are hard done by go down north hill of an eve time to see them all sat in the pubs drinking. so money must be comming in from somewhere”

“Welcome to capitalism, its the normal hard working man in the street that pays. I,m a mature student,trying to re-build my job prospects to pay my way but constantly come up against brick walls.”

“@Llama dedong,says it all really,want"s a loan but dosn"t want to pay it back,GET A LIFE, start paying your way,if you go to uni work hard and study and forget about the partying you should have a carreer that enables you to pay back your debts.
END OF STORY.”

“This is very ignorant to be focusing this just on Citybus, there are 2 other companies in Plymouth that you could also point the finger at.

Just looking for an excuse to winge, as most Plymouth people do...”

“Students really do not get that much money. There is a misconception with a lot of people that the money students are lent is "free money" and that we get a lot. The reason for these loans is that studying is our full time job. We are told to do no more than 13 hours of paid work per week at minimum wage that is roughly £339 a month, not enough to pay rent ect. Student accommodation is very expensive, last year I paid £375 a month for a room in a house with 6 other people, this is actually an average price as well.

It must be hard enough at 30 or 40 to decide you are going to change career path, or get started on one, and know you have to go to university where a lot of your colleagues are much younger than you. To then be discriminated against and told you are much too old to receive the same discounts as your peers, I can't imagine that feels nice.

If it were your children heading to uni and being discriminated against due to their age I am certain you would want them to be entitled to the same as the other students.”

“@crazypenguin. I agree that using the comments board simply to "****" people off as you put it tends to defeat the purpose of a notice board, it ends up being no better that standing outside a pub shouting at each other. I have a child at Uni who works furiously hard through the night generally (as that is when he is least distracted) and sleeps 'tll the afternoon. Most people we know perceive that as being a "typical student" without realising that 6 hours of constant study through the night caused the need to sleep these odd hours.

There is a perception of an "easy life" for students, but that is taken by people not realising the schedule a uni degree requires and when you have free time, you make the most of it, I don't have a problem at all with students (although the uni taking over the town (and the available accomodation) does annoy me but that's probably a different thread).

Back to the point of this story, all businesses are in it for profit. If you have a ready-source of income (from whatever group) you won't offer discounts, there's no need, supply and demand etc etc. Stop using the facility (the demand drops) then they have to "incentivise" you to come back on board.

That said, I benefitted from free school bus travel when I was at school, but not once I'd left, even though I went to night-school. Sadly you have to put a cap on how many people can benefit from a concession or it defeats the object of having one. As you are only asking for it for being part of a like-minded set of people (all students) a line has to be drawn or all students, (not necessarily uni) will expect discounted travel and that would almost instantly make the bus company pack it in, as it is a prime source of income.

It doesn't make business sense and that is what people are missing I feel. It isn't about what you (the student wants) it's about what is available and whether the bus company feel it is financially viable, clearly not though or they'd be doing it.”

“privatisng citybus wasnt a good idea after all. Not only are they discriminating the older students but the school kids still can't get a normal fare before 9....maybe we should all stop using their services for a day to show how we fell!!!!”

“why are students given these discounts in the first place? are they more important than trainee nurses or apprentices or for that matter the unemployed - all of whom probably have less disposable incomes than students”

“Darvo completly aggree......this comments pages makes the daily mail readership look intelligent! loans are paid back, students are not lazy far from it, unlike perhaps some of those commenting they are driven enough to want to make something of there lives as opposed to just being happy in a menial job, mature students are not likly to spend all there money on beer and those of a younger age are living the same life anyone does at that age student or not.

the complete believe in stereotypical bs is laughable here it really is. GO get a job!....well there trying to mate and just because you didnt go to uni doesnt mean noone else should.”