Temporary changes to Older Person’s Freedom Pass

In my case, this will be an exact reversal of the pre-epidemic situation.I could use my ENCTS pass at ant time on TfL buses, but not till 0900 on any other bus in Essex. To allow OAPs to get to their 7-8 supermarket slots, ECC made their passes available at any time. So soon, I shall be able to get on an Essex bus at any time, but a TFL one only after 9!

Perhaps their server has a virus?

BTW, this will lead to a resurrection of the word "twerly" as a synonym for OAP (as in "am I too early?") - one of the few words in the language invented by London Transport staff.

They may do, but not quite yet. Hertfordshire always had an "any time " policy.
Essex was 0900.
One of the problems would be the creation of a mini-peak as OAPs all crowd on the bus at 9.30. Not desirable for social distancing among the most vulnerable - as will happen in London.

Great pun haha

I did a little of bit research when added "twirly" to Wiktionary. The earliest citations I found were from the mid-1980s and not geographically limited but clearly linked to buses. That research was not exhaustive however and such a term would be in verbal use long before it was written down.

The changes are only the 'add-on', as you call it, that is early-morning Tube and bus travel. The changes bring London in line with the rest of the country (and indeed ENCTS as a whole).

The government only pay for the bus concession 9.30- 23.00 which it is in my area. The GLC and now the mayor pays for all the extra add-ons as maybe other councils where they have trams or metro services because it is such a vote winner. London pensioners live in fantasy land as far as free travel goes that most other pensioners can only dream of. My London Freedom pass has better availability than my retired staff pass although that does go to Reading now courtesy of Crossrail.

Or as they used to say: "We don't use a clock, we use a calendar"

The 1tpw (train per week) from Clitheroe to Hellifield (a distance of 13mi 46ch) has been cancelled for the rest of the year. Apparently this is ok because there is an alternate route: via Leeds (a distance of 86miles).

I don't disagree with what you're saying about the raison d'être of the service north of Hellifield, I was trying to be cynical about the service frequency in some cities and some parts of the country.

Ultimately the longer this goes on for, especially this current state of limbo where we still have a most ridiculously loose lockdown but accompanied by many people still not at work for one reason of another, the bigger the ultimate bill which we are collectively going to have to pick up. I get the feeling the government wasn’t expecting things to drag on to this extent, indeed I think most of us expected a short and sharp lockdown to allow the government to regain control of events, which in practice has taken much longer than hoped for, and is still rather fragile.

I’m not sure we’ll necessarily see line closures, but there will be a renewed focus on efficiency savings. No doubt some lessons from the past will be forgotten, like for example that a half hourly service of 4-car trains can deliver better revenue that an hourly service of 8-car trains as the extra ridership from a more convenient service offsets the cost of an extra crew.

Ultimately we can expect a rather rough few years, and of course CV19 is still with us and will no doubt throw a few more curved balls along the way.

So it’s hard to see how a combination of tax rises (we’ve already had a sneak preview with the congestion charge) and cuts is going to be avoided. Likewise it’s widely expected many businesses will not survive the year, which will put further strain on things.