Due to a lack of funding from the government, people who own a Zoom card will now be paying nearly double the previous price for their travel.
A Zoom Beyond Travel Pass, for 18-21 year olds, has been a staple for students and young adults for the last few years, and has enabled people to travel for only 80p on trams and buses in Sheffield.
Due to a lack of funding, they were set to be scrapped entirely on November 1st 2023.
This was reversed, and now there will instead be an increase in price to £1.50, which some people disagree with.
Curtis Yip,18, a member of Youth Parliament said that the initial scrap of the Zoom Pass was ‘very disappointing.’
He said “ The Zoom travel pass is symbolic to the wider success of the young people of South Yorkshire. It is a huge benefit for young people particularly in this cost of living crisis.
It’s a shame South Yorkshire has to bear the cost of the lack of funding from the government. It’s the North struggling again.”
With some young people advocating for Zoom cards, others feel the price increase won’t change much.
Tram conductor Arie Cummings described her experience with Zoom Passes at work.
She said: “We get a lot of young people coming on the trams daily, however even with Zoom cards, at 80p, you still get young people trying to not pay. I think the 80p fare is already very very cheap and relatively I dont think it’s that big of a jump.”
She advised that there are other forms of transportation and with buses having more routes there’s options.
The 20 year old finished with, “Sheffield is already the cheapest area, you can’t make everything cheap.”
In August, before the price increase, a petition was set up by Jude Smith against the removal of Zoom cards.
The Young Activist and Campaigner helped set up the scheme back in 2021, alongside the South Yorkshire Youth Combined Authority to get ‘young adults mobile’.
He said: “This is not our Mayor [Oliver Coppard] fault, it’s the central government.”
I set up the petition in August and we got an update recently from the Mayor that bus companies allowed fares to increase to £1.50 which is almost double.”
The 18 year old stated “We’ve had the cheapest fare for young people, aged 18-21, in the country for five years. Just because this situation is happening to young ,usually poorer people, nobody cares.”
He continued, “Mobility is the lifeblood of a region and if we want to keep our students here we’ve got to tell them that we care.”
There will be a Zoom Beyond demonstration on Saturday 28th October at 1pm at Sheffield City Hall to celebrate the successes of Zoom passes.
Link to Jude’s petition below:
https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/save-the-zoom-beyond-travel-pass