Fareham Borough Council is looking at a bill of more than £250,000 after the number of people taking advantage of the government's free off-peak travel scheme exceeded all expectations.
Figures just released show that Fareham is having to subsidis
e the scheme by an extra £20,000 to £30,000 a month. At the current rate the council could be out of pocket by £280,000 for the year.
Since the scheme began local authorities have had to pay for any trips taken on public transport by pensioners that start on their land.
That has made it expensive for transport hubs like Fareham and for popular resorts bringing in large numbers of visitors.
Councillor John Bryant, chairman of the council's planning and transportation panel, said: 'This is worse than we thought it would be. It will mean an increase in the council's budget because there's no other way of raising the money.
'It hits places like Fareham. You can't catch a bus from Gosport direct to Portsmouth or Winchester, you have to change here in Fareham, and it's journeys like that where we get caught every time.'
The Department for Transport had projected that Fareham would have to subsidise 1,087,200 bus journeys, but the first three months show Fareham has had to cover 19 per cent more than were budgeted for.
Cllr Bryant added: 'People are taking up the opportunity to use the buses, and quite rightly – nobody is saying they shouldn't, but the funding isn't there.'
The government scheme covers journeys from 9.30am to 11pm, but Fareham offers an extra half hour from 9am.
This extra period has already been used for 72,000 rides, and officers calaculate that changing the start time could save about £25,000.
Sophie Benger, spokeswoman for the Department for Transport, said: 'Government has provided an extra £212m to help councils extend use of the free bus pass across England, with Fareham given an extra £278,000 – which represents an increase of almost a third on 2006/7.
'We have made generous assumptions about pass take-up and are now spending £1bn a year in total on concessionary fares, with over 11 million people eligible for this popular and successful scheme.'
The full article contains 405 words and appears in The News newspaper.
