(17 Mar 2021, 3:15 pm)streetdeckfan wrote I definitely agree, I'd love nothing more than for everyone to have access for free public transport, but realistically that's not going to happen on such a large scale. 
Maybe once we have a wider adoption of electric buses something like that might be viable due to the considerably lower running costs, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

The other issue is the taxes lost from all those cars no longer being on the road and using fuel would have to be made up from somewhere (actually taxing large international corporations would be a good start!)

Barriers wouldn't be put  in place for some passes, they would be in place for all passes, both disabled and older people (and anyone else who may be entitled to a concessionary pass).

As I said further up, for me you either offer free travel to everybody, nobody, or those who need it (which arguably those entitled to a disabled pass could come under, depending on their particular case).

But by putting those barriers up and making it more expensive or difficult for passengers to use the service, surely you see that it could result in more cars being on the road?
Which is the exact opposite of what operators want.
They don't want cars on the road. They want people to make that modal switch to public transport.