This summer has been the cause of endless bus journeys to wander around my town in South West England, which in turn has caused anger amongst me and my friends because of the ridiculous way the age limit of adulthood is exploited in the country.
The official age of adulthood is 18 in the UK (except for Scotland) which means UK teenagers under 18 have a lower minimum age than other workers. Yet on most services like rail and bus, the limit of childhood fares is 16, meaning those between the ages of 16 and 18 have the disadvantage of having to pay adult fares on a young person’s wage. Although the minimum wage in the UK has been increasing- from £3.64 for under 18’s in 2010 to £4.05 in 2017- the fares of services has been increasing alongside it, for example the price of a single tube ticket in London rising to £5.90 from £4.00 between 2010 and 2017. If comparing this the prices of services are increasing at a faster rate than the minimum wage, which is bad news for us teenagers.
This is even more unfair when our circumstances are taken into account. With all 16-18 year olds in full time education finding a well paid job that fit suitable hours can be extremely difficult and may even require transport to get to. Additionally, the value of transport services in our everyday life is significant, as most teenagers this age can’t drive and rely on public services to commute to school, college, social events and everything in between.
With rising prices one would expect services to be modern and efficient, but most of the time this isn’t the case. Many trains have not been refurbished in years and are often delayed or cancelled, causing unacceptable inconvinience, and the same can be said for other methods of transport such as bus and plane. Recently my friend and I took a train to Bristol, a mere 1 hour from my home but one of the most high in demand route at peak times, only to find a small 3 carriage train pull up with very few seats, which resulted in most people standing. Furthermore due to the route’s popularity, bikes and suitcases were abundant which made the carriages even more crowded. In these appalling conditions people were having to stand on each others toes to grab hold of anything for support, causing major issues for the elderly and families. Another incident occurred today when a bus was cancelled for technical difficulties with no back up being available, meaning passengers having a delay of 2 hours to London, which may have been extremely problematic for someone with awaiting planes or interviews etc in the capital. This quality of service is simply not acceptable and unparalleled to ever increasing prices.
This paradox in the way teenagers are considered is significantly unfair and should be made aware for more widely so action can be taken. To help solve these issues you could try and contact your local MP, the information’s of which can be found here.
