Free bus travel for under 22s in Scotland

All under 22s resident in Scotland will have access to free bus travel from 31 January 2022, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.

School pupils, students and social media influencers joined the First Minister at Glasgow Caledonian University as she made the announcement onboard a new, Scottish-built electric bus as part of COP26’s Youth and Empowerment Day.

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Whilst I congratulate the youth of Scotland on their new found mobility, I see this as being a potential problem for other age groups who use buses to get around.

If you've ever spent any time traveling on buses in and around Edinburgh you may understand where I'm coming from.  Whilst I wouldn't tar all teenagers here with the same brush, there is a significant problem with antisocial behaviour from that group.  It looks like soon there will be even more of them on the busses.

Another thing that will happen is they will have more money in their pockets.  That will mean more money to buy takeaways and calmly discard the empty cartons right where they are standing.  They'll also have more money to buy alcohol and weed.

I already avoid the buses because of Covid, and of course a good number of these teenagers have refused to wear masks throughout the pandemic.  The cost of bus travel is also getting expensive so perhaps time to switch to the train which faster and in some cases cheaper.