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Selby MP John Grogan

THE end is nigh for half-price train fares for pensioners and the disabled in Selby district.

Since April 2006, Selby District Council has subsidised rail travel for the over-65s and those registered as disabled living in the district.

The cut-price fares covered travel from Selby, South Milford and Sherburn-in-Elmet stations going to Leeds, Wakefield, Hull, Scarborough, Harrogate, York and Whitby.

From April 1, the council is withdrawing funding for the scheme, at the same time as the free bus travel scheme is extended from just within the district to anywhere in the UK.

Selby MP John Grogan said: "Just as the Government is for the first time putting pensioners and the disabled in Selby district on the same footing as pensioners and the disabled in West Yorkshire as regards bus travel, the district council is widening the gap in terms of the rail concessions available to them.

"In West Yorkshire, senior citizens and the disabled are currently entitled to a 35p maximum fare on train journeys, which I understand will also continue after April, in direct contrast to Selby."

A council spokesman said the reduced train fares had been introduced following Government legislation passed in 2006 which entitled pensioners and the disabled to free bus travel.

He said the district council agreed to go beyond this statutory duty and offer discounted rail travel too. He said there were about 13,500 people registered for the council's concessionary travel scheme.

Council deputy leader Brian Percival said most of these people only used the bus element of the scheme anyway. He said the council was reallocating its resources to fund the increased bus travel demands. "We've put the money into locations where it's required, rather than across the board where there isn't the take-up," he said.

9:21am Tuesday 19th February 2008

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