Celebrating 50 years of the Freedom Pass

Fifty years ago, on September 23^rd, 1973, I organised the launch of the Freedom Pass on Lower Road Bermondsey.  At the time I was employed as the Head of the Leaders Office at the Greater London Council (GLC).  Little did I realise that fifty years later, at 78 years of age I would be organising an event in Southwark Park, a short walk from that specific site on Lower Road, to celebrate that ground-breaking initiative   

In 1973 I worked for Sir Reg Goodwin who had just become Leader of the GLC following the election in May 1973. Sir Reg launched the Freedom Pass, which initially allowed London’s pensioners to travel free of charge on London’s buses.  Subsequently the scheme was extended to cover free travel for the over 60’s and some disabled people on trains, tubes and buses within Greater London.

At the time the scheme was seen as a revolutionary initiative, allowing those who were retired, to be able to visit travel across the capital for shopping, leisure, or to visit friends and relatives without worrying about the cost.

Reg Goodwin and I had drafted Labour’s manifesto for the 1973 election when the major issue was the then plans by the government and GLC to demolish thousands of houses in London to build the London Motorway Box. 

Labours manifesto set out not just to scrap the motorway box, but to boost public transport by radically reducing fares.  Following a decisive election victory in May 1973, the new GLC kept its election pledge to ditch the plans for a motorway box in London. The subsequent launch of the Freedom Pass in September, built on this, and was aimed at reducing the cost of fares on public transport but particularly for retired Londoners.

Plans at that time to further reduce fare levels for others were scuppered by the Oil Crisis that happened in late 1973 and in the following years when inflation in the UK reached 25%.

Today fifty years later, 1.4 M Londoners over 60 are able to travel without charge on public transport, while many London’s neighbourhoods continue to exist as a direct result of the ditching of the motorway box.

On reflection I am amazed that the Freedom Pass survived the tumultuous events of the last fifty years.  When drafting our policies which laid the plans for the Freedom Pass, I did not think then, as a twenty-six-year-old, that I would live to see the benefit of the Pass as I do now.

The background to the Freedom Pass had been laid in the GLC election four years earlier, in 1969 when Labour lost at a time when it was expected to win.  This was a direct result of an effective campaign by the “Homes Before Roads” movement which ran candidates in that election and captured the desire of Londoners to stand up to the pro car roads lobby, that had been supported by Labour and Conservative politicians at the GLC as well as in Parliament. 

I hope all who read this blog will join in Celebrating & Defending the 50th Anniversary of the London Freedom Pass. 

WHEN: 11.00am, Saturday 23 September 2023

WHERE: Lakeside Café, Southwark Park, London SE16 2UA

You can find out all the information here.

Peter Walker is co-proprietor of Vista Events. Prior to starting Vista he worked as a policy adviser on economics for the Labour Party nationally and in London. Peter later worked as Deputy Director of Amnesty International where he produced the Secret Policeman's Ball with John Cleese.