First major grumble of 2008.
Last week, on my first day at work of the New Year, I went to the station to renew my season ticket.
A simple task you'd think.
But no. Merseytravel had, in their wisdom, decided that the ticket I used - the TrioPlus - was to be no more.
The decision, whatever the reasoning behind it, was put into effect with literally no publicity.
So not only is there a decision to dump a season ticket in a way which will force some of us public transport users to spend a lot more money - it is a decision which is kept secret!
I spoke to one of my former council colleagues about this. Peter Millea leads the Lib Dem group on Merseytravel. He told me there had been a discussion and vote on this. The Lib Dems had wanted to keep the season ticket. The other parties had not. He was as annoyed as I was that there had been no publicity and I believe the fact that there has now (yesterday) been a quick mention of this is down to his intervention.
But whatever the rights and wrongs of the lack of publicity - surely it can't be right to dump a public transport option just like that. I am told that buying an alternative ticket will save me money. And yes it will - if I decide not to use the bus! Given that the point of my ticket was that I needed to use buses and trains and wanted the flexibility that it was designed to provide, there is no way I am anything but worse off as a result of this.
And this at a time when we positively want to encourage more use of public transport and when the bus figures show a drop off in use.
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