£430 for one term of college bus fare

Praise be upon Andy Burham - it's a tenner for 2 years in Greater Manchester.

In 2001 my bus pass was £350/year so yes I’m not surprised.

Only choice of school unless you wanted single sex.

My DS has thankfully left a similar college. A week rider on stagecoach was £13.50 to get to town to catch the college bus, then £9 a day to the college. He only did 4 days so a week was just under £50

In London kids go free on buses.

Out in the real world we have this
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regionaltickets/south/winchester/studentrider

Proper provision of buses every hour to every community would allow
the young
the old
the poor
the disabled
to have a better quality of life
and not rely on other family members to drive them to school / work / leisure / shopping

but there are no bungs for politicians in proper bus provision

Is she in college every day of the week? You could do with knowing how many days in the year she will attend ... much less than school. Otherwise you need to find the £950 and complain to your MP ... it is truly ridiculous!

I was inspired to check our price this year. Just over £1k for the annual pass, by direct debit.
We are around 10 miles from the college, which is on the outskirts of the city.
Kids in a city nearly 30 miles away can travel at the same price for an annual pass.
One bus service per route per day and college attendance is three days per week.
We offer lifts and the local bus is £3 for a return, if you don’t mind a walk from the city centre.
I don’t know anyone who buys the annual ticket.

I pay around £900 a year for my dd to travel to a SEN placement.

I can remember my parents complaining about the bus price when I went to college 25 years ago. I think it’s always been crazily expensive.

thats crazy!! and in big cities (London for example) it's free.

the government push for kids to be in full time education then theres this along with expensive uniforms - it shouldn't be allowed

I think I’d look at mopeds again. If he’s doing the same route everyday he would know all the more tricky bits. I used to cycle all over the place when I was a teen in Cornwall. I guess there was less traffic but I don’t think it’s any worse than anywhere else.
The time the bus takes to do the journey is almost as crazy as the cost.
An ebike would get him there in an hour as they are capped at 15mph. That would save him loads of time and would save you a lot of money.

Now young people have to stay in education or training I think transport should remain free like it is for those of compulsory school age.

There are two problems - the big picture one you can't influence, like gov policy of mandatory education and the hole yur Council has with the school and the one you have to deal with.

Yes, it's pricey, but the alternatives are driving or moving yourself. So I think just mentally write off the cost and try not to think about it unless you want to fight the big picture.

Don't get me wrong, I'm entirely sympathetic, but unless you have the energy to fight to change it, recognising it may take the entire time your DC is in sixth form to get a change and that your DC won't benefit in time, it's probably less stressful to just pay and forget (which is probably what everyone does and why this problem exists). Sorry though, sounds shit.

Shame no adult wants to start a local business running a daily minibus for half the price!

It's £1,000 a year here. My child started at 6th form of the same secondary school he had attended and caught the same bus he had used the previous 5 years. When he was in years 7-11 the bus was free, but not in 6th form.

We can pay in monthly instalments but only if you've applied before the end of June. It's still a large monthly payment.

If the government insisted on children being in education until they are 18, they should have also considered transport costs.

My dd's school bus is £1300 per year even though the school is only 4.5 miles away! Grammar school there's no catchment, everyone has to pay. Kids from further away pay even more.

£2500 a year for DD’s school coach here (SW London), I feel your pain

My train fare to college was £60 a week. I got a bursary that covered it. For low income families I’m sure there must be funding to cover it.

In Hampshire the only people who get free transport to post 16 are those with very low income or in care, regardless of whether you are attending a catchment college. I’m surprised that some councils still offer this, post 16 seems like such a postcode lottery, both in terms of transport and course availability.

so what happens if the bus fare can’t be found? Does the child get into trouble for not attending college?

I live in Cornwall too. DH and I ride every road whether B, A or farm track. On a moped it's often easier than on a bigger bike as you can manoeuvre them more easily at low speed.

Don't write it off as an idea - it's cheap, reliable and a great way to build indepence around the county. Especially if he wants a part time job, to see mates, avoid that long day at college etc.

Is it Duchy or similar? I've heard they are bad for transport links after several routes were cancelled.

we live on the border of 3 counties - nearest sixth form is 8 miles away but in a different county to the one we live in. Catchment 6th form is 18 miles away ave serviced by 1 bus a day which takes 75 minutes each way due to very rural roads in that direction and the number of villages it services. Nearly everyone sends their kids to the nearest schools which means we have to pay for transport. In our case £1200 per child for the year. We both work in the opposite direction to the DCs school so driving them to school was not an option. Nearly every 17 y.o here learns to drive because of the problems of public transport across county boundaries. It’s very frustrating.

My dc school, 3 miles away, would be £550 each per term. This is on a public bus that has a schools contract.
When it was a council run service, using private coach companies, it was £215 per term.
I drop mine off on the way to and from work now. They wait about 30 mins at the end of school for me to get to them, seems fair to me. It might not be the independence I would want for them but I don’t have thousands to spunk on buses when I’m only going a small way out of my way to drop them off.
Kids who qualify for pupil premium get a free pass. Kids going to the closest school living over 3 miles get a free pass. This school is literally 0.1 of a mile further away than the closest school so we don’t qualify. It’s an absolute crime, all because councils are desperate to be as cheap as possible.

Yes my dd has a journey down major dual carriageways, not at all suitable for a moped, worries me enough that she’s on a packed bus tbh. It’s the additional barrier to getting a driving test that really grates, when she applied for college there were 12 buses a day, in September last year that was cut to 4, she thought she’d be able to get driving and commute to local train station (a few miles away), but now can’t get a test date, and of course is about to turn 18 which means a huge increase in train fares, which go from 50% reduced with no minimum spend, to 30% reduced with a minimum fare before discount so effectively no discounts on local train tickets.

Im sure when I was a young adult travelling on public transport was much cheaper.

wow, that’s shocking. That’s so much money.