I HAVE now had the opportunity to travel on the local No 31 bus from my local stop at Fern Road to the bus station in Worcester, following the changed structure for pensioners' fares, and have to say that the logic of the changes escapes me.

First, the increase of 50 per cent in the charge for a bus pass is far beyond the national inflation figure. I had expected a 25 per cent increase from £8 to £10 but to go to £12 is more than is reasonable. After all, a pensioner's income does not increase at that rate.

Then the change in fare structure. A short journey return at 50p will only take me to the Bull Ring and I need to pay an additional 40 pence to travel one more stop to the city.

Equally, if I boarded the bus at the Monarch Drive terminal, the 50p ticket will take me to the Bull Ring, a distance roughly equal to the distance from Fern Road to the bus station.

There are two additional stops between Monarch Drive and Fern Road. I, and other passengers, from Fern Road are being penalised on a distance basis.

However, if I buy a 90p day ticket, I can, by the very nature of the ticket, board the bus in the morning at Fern Road and spend the day travelling on all the various routes within the city and finally return home in the evening for the original 90p.

To me, this makes nonsense of travel cost accounting.

J W ALLEN,

Worcester.