£430 for one term of college bus fare

It's horrendously expensive, but even worse that they literally 'stick you up' for not being able to afford an annual pass 😡.

Is owning a moped a possibility?

The hospital where I need to go for some of my rehab is 5 miles away.

1 hr 48 mins to the town & a good 30 min walk.£7 each way. 2 changes in each direction.

Because of the stroke I have fortunately been able to access some community transport (paid for, but car, door to door & cheaper than a regular taxi)

if this was to the college near the hospital instead, it would be £14 per day, (assuming no discounts, couldn't find any) a minimum 4 hours bus travelling (other times of day longer than -1 hr 48 each way) plus walking time.

when they changed the law to FE to 18 thus should have been looked at.

my friends DS wanted to do an engineering course at a college 15 mikes away, but the bus situation is just as duffucukt & expensive, so he'd had to do 6th form at his senior school. Fortunately that's possible, but it's also a bit if a waste of 2 years when what he wants to do is engineering. All because of the crap transport situation.

(the roads aren't suitable for cycling either, especially over winter)

But that only hurts the kids doesn’t it, councils are broke and parents of 16-18 year olds are a very small group, not enough to trigger political concern, particularly as it varies so much across the UK, parents of kids in FE living rurally are a tiny group. I do wonder if giving 16+ the vote may give more platform to their issues, young people seem to get such a poor deal at the moment.

When the government put in the new requirement that students are required to be in education or training until 18 they didn’t update the requirements for transport to the places of education,

this was presumably deliberate.

so no, students are meant to be in education or training from 16-18 but there’s no requirement to provide any kind of transport

most colleges do run some kind of bus system but it’s very much up to them and it can be ridiculously expensive.

mine went by train (next town over) and I dropped them at the station each morning o my way to work. The canteen did quite a good breakfast so they had breakfast each day at college.

That's terrible OP.

I grew up in a very small village in a rural area. The nearest secondary school was five miles away and only went to 16. If you wanted to stay on to Sixth Form you had to go to the Sixth Form College about 15 miles away. The bus service in our village was practically non existent - a (small) handful of buses on Tuesday and Saturday only.

However, I was lucky. This was the 1970s so if you lived more than a certain distance from the school, 2 miles I think, free transport was provided. My journey to Sixth Form was about 1 hour and 30 minutes each way but didn't cost me a penny.

I’m surprised then isn’t more outcry re cost of 16-18 transport to compulsory education. If the parents say we simply can’t pay then presumably they’ll be out of education.

That’s shocking!
Our bus service isn’t great, but it’s not that bad.
No chance of getting people out of cars unless it’s sorted. I wouldn’t spend that amount of time on the bus. They are so disjointed, bus services.

354 quid per term, so just shy of a grand a year, for me to send 17 yo dd to the nearest school on the bus. We still don't know if she's got a seat as the ks3 and 4 students get places first and they won't tell us for 3 weeks into the term, telling me that it'smy responsibility to get her to school. Fine, if I actually could do that but I need to get to work! If she was FSM it would all be fine, orif we claimed benefits. There's no bus services as we live rurally. Ds goes to college, and that's 500 quid a year. It's bloody ridiculous. This is cambridgeshire.

We had to pay for dd’s bus travel for service in catchment from year 7. There were schools closer but not in catchment and not schools dd would have wanted to go to. Apparently to qualify to have the bus fare paid, we would have had to apply for the closer school(s) and have been turned down. Then if dd had still been allocated the catchment school, only then would the council have had a duty to pay.

I’m therefore not surprised that you have to pay for transport. And catchment doesn’t apply for post 16.

Do local buses not have the £1 a single journey for 21 and under?
We never got free bus travel 11-16 even though we lived just under 3miles away, nearest school.
But local nearest college they receive a free bus pass, but the sixth forms centre you have to pay.
What about an electric bike or 50c scooter .

Wow that’s bad. I’m in Surrey, just, so have to pay for bus £1.75 I think per journey (actually could be less for DD as she has a 16-17 Oyster) but if we lived half a mile over the border and in London it would be free. She could attend a 6th form within walking distance though. Shocking you have to pay so much when you’ve no choice on distance. What about kids from very low income households?

And driving isn’t easy, tests have to be booked 6 months in advance, dd made an error and failed so now at least another 6 months until she can try again (which puts huge pressure on the test).

Yup I'm facing the same in a couple of years ds2 has been sent to a special school out of area (i wanted in area but they said no A LOT) he will get transport until he is 16 then it will cost me thousands for two years then it will be free again however if I pull him from the school he can only get two years somewhere else not three it makes zero sense i might actually need to move areas to continue my sons education

No school 6th forms in Hampshire, everything in larger towns, all buses from our village are £3 each way, when the government introduced maximum fares Stagecoach got rid of returns, so getting dd to college is £6 a day. There’s apparently no obligation for councils to get 16-18 year olds to education unless they’re qualified for FSM. We could pay £950 for an annual pass, but she’s out so many days it’s cheaper to pay daily. Also ridiculous that the 16-17 rail pass expires on their 18th birthday so effectively not worth the admin fee for autumn or winter born kids in year 13. Surely an 18 year old in year 13 has the same need as a 17 year old?

It could however be worse, Isles of Scilly have no post-16 and get no government support even though they have to send kids to board. Falkland Islands government pay for their 6th formers to board in the UK.

£850 for the whole year up front, and that only covers one specific route to this specific college, no other buses at all.

It baffles me how they want people to use public transport more yet can't provide a service that allows people to do this.

I live quite rurally and I'm now thinking I need to potentially account for these transport costs when DD9 goes to college - better start adding more to her pot!

Agree, it should be free if no pubic transport available