By James Lewis, Co Editor-in-Chief
The free bus pass used to be offered to all first years living in undergraduate accommodation.
Last year, the pass offered unlimited trips on the U1, 3, 4, and 72 bus routes. This has been reduced to the U1, 5, and 77, with free travel on the 3 and 4 only between Bristol city centre and Coombe Dingle.
However, those who applied for accommodation before 1 May – the date that eligibility for the bus pass changed – can still redeem a free bus pass, even if they live outside Stoke Bishop.
Those who didn’t meet this cutoff date and are living outside Stoke Bishop now face paying £400 for the bus pass their North Village peers receive for free.
All students who want to upgrade to a full Bristol Zone bus pass, accessing all First and metrobus routes, will now need to pay £485. Last year, the upgrade from the free bus pass cost £189.
A University of Bristol spokesperson told Epigram that this situation reflects the University’s changing relationship with First Bus, and a desire to keep accommodation costs down for students.
The spokesperson said, ‘the U1 service will be run as a commercial route by First Bus rather than a university-contracted service.
‘We’re moving away from the previous model, which was extremely costly, as we found that the majority of students didn’t use the passes that were offered to them, and most University buildings are within walking or cycling distance of our halls and the city centre.’
Incoming law student, Dana, will be living in Campbell House and is therefore not eligible for the pass. She told Epigram that the bus pass was ‘one of the things that made [her] excited’ when applying for accommodation after a foundation year in London where no travel discounts were offered.
Dana added that she is ‘concerned for students with disabilities who will find the daily walk to uni particularly challenging’.
For some students, this daily walk is getting longer and longer. In the last two years, two accommodations have opened that are over a half an hour walk to campus. Metal Works, which opened last September, is a 35-minute walk to Wills Memorial Building. Meanwhile, Avon Point, which is accepting its first residents this week, takes 37-minutes.
Josephine, a first year Music student, is living in Avon Point despite the accommodation being more than £3,000 over her specified budget and having marked down being near campus as her first priority when applying for accommodation.
She told Epigram that ‘when you’re put this far away [travel] is a necessity’ and not something she should be expected to have to pay extra for.
Josephine thinks the decision to change bus passes is ‘something that hasn’t been thought about carefully enough’, because her accommodation is a similar distance from campus as Stoke Bishop.
The University say that these changed have been made to help ‘keep accommodation costs down for everyone’.
Bus pass eligibility, though, appears to be negatively affecting those who need it most.
Of the 19 student accommodation room types that cost 55% (£5804.70) or less of the maximum student loan – the generally accepted threshold for ‘affordable’ student housing – only one is in Stoke Bishop. Of the 50 most affordable room types for first years, just nine of these are in Stoke Bishop. In fact, of these nine, seven are in the bracket 40-50.
Megan Patterson
For those living in Northwell House, for example, their 32-minute walk to campus could be cut in half to 16-minutes on the 77. Yet, they aren’t eligible for the pass despite living in the most affordable accommodation offered by the University of Bristol.
Featured image: Epigram / Cara Hene
First year’s, how do you feel about the new eligibility rules? Drop us an email on editor.epigram@gmail.com, or dm us on Instagram @epigrampaper_
