Bus Pass problems

I sit at the front of the bus, so i often hear the conversations that the bus driver has with other passengers and other snippets of information. The conversation I overheard tonight concerned me, and I thought I should blog about it to raise awareness and see what others think about the situation?

A man got on the bus with a disabled persons bus pass. In south yorkshire they are smart passes so have to be scanned on entry to the bus. He explained that last night his snapped and so he had tried to selotape it as best he could. he was obviously anxious and worried about the use of his pass. As he explained to the driver it was clearly him and it was clearly in date.

The bus driver was adamant that the pass should be confiscated and that the man needed to go to get a new one from the bus station. After some back and forward the driver allowed him to keep it and let him on. The same conversation happened again as he got off the bus because he was now really distressed at the thought of his pass being taken off him. I know I would be, its my lifeline. Not only that, its sunday and bank holiday tomorrow, so nothing will be open, he then has to wait 4 days to get a new one. here are my list of concerns about this.

1) Is this actually policy? should the bus driver be threatening to take clearly valid passes off clearly vulnerable people?

2) If the bus driver had confiscated it then the guy would have had to pay the replacement fee, if he had gone in with it damaged it would be free.

3) what should happen in the mean time? There is currently no temporary solution, and although people might argue its only a few days, it is a lifeline. These passes are for people who (like me) can not drive because of health related reasons. It often is the difference between going out and not going out.

4) I wonder if the bus company would have given a refund if the man was forced to pay, or cared if he didnt get on the bus and something happened to him because of it.

My concern is that the driver clearly said this was policy, but this has no consideration of the clear needs of some of the passengers who use these passes have when using the bus. If this is policy, to confiscate and refuse entry to disabled people with broken or damaged passes that are still clearly in date then it needs changing.