Re. School buses.

[ramblinrose]

From April of this year,our County Council (Derbyshire) will remove funding for most of the school bus services.

These buses are not provided free of charge.My son pays 50p per journey to his local catchment area senior school.So £20 per month goes on school bus fares.
My neighbour has 3 dds at this school,so already pays a fair amount to get her children to and from school.

From April they will either have to catch the service bus or,if enough people are willing,carry on with the school bus at a cost of £1 per journey.
Either way,it will cost twice as much to send our children to school as it does now.
It seems incredible that it will cost my neighbour £120 per month on school bus fares.
The school is just over 2.5 miles away.I suppose it could be argued that this is within walking or cycling distance,but it is not the most pleasant of routes with at least two terrible roads to cross during rush hour traffic.
Neither of us drive btw.

So,AIBU please.
I know councils have to save money,and we're all in this together,but it seems a bit extreme to me.

We don't have bus services like this, but I don't begrudge the OP having them where she lives.

I can't be doing with all this race to the bottom "well we have to pay £x, BOTH WAYS...you don't know you're born" crap. All of our children should be able to get to school inexpensively, be that using a safe route on foot/bike or via bus if the distance warrants it. In fact every single one of us should be able to avail ourselves of inexpensive public transport.

YANBU, anyway OP.

Hello
cory There is a service bus that runs every 30 mins,which ,as you say makes us very lucky.They actually get very busy and I'm a little concerned that they'll not be able to cope with the extra number of kids and just go sailing past.

IUseTooMuchKitchenRoll (I do too btw) .Of course I realize that there are worse thing that the council could cut. I would not want to see this service kept at the expense of a more deserving cause.

Some children are not on a direct bus route to the school (even though it is their catchment area)
I really feel for these kids as they'll have to leave home around 7 in the morning to catch 2 service buses to get them to school in time for registration at 8.40.

And thank you jenai
Stagecoach has done away with daily and weekly discount tickets for the under 14s in our area.A child fare is 70% of an adult fare.
They can't even buy a return ticket.
My 16 yr old son can travel by bus more cheaply than my 12 yr old and my 7 yr old.

Yes it is definitely unfair that over 60s currently get free bus travel in England, no matter what their income, I notice however this does not apply to younger residents like me who have had their pensionable age to 67 1/2 before being able to claim the same free pass, anyway it is unfair that ALL over 60s get free transport whereas children are having their subsidised transport to school cut!!! It's just ridiculous that you could be a very well off pensioner and be travelling for free on the bus whereas a child whose parents struggle financially for money has to pay more than previously. If the over 60s bus passes were means tested (don't get me started on the fuel allowance for over 75s too!!!), then there would be more money freed up for school transport.

While that is a massive increase the council will still be subsidising it. Even if the bus has 50 passengers a day, that's only £50 which is about a third of what it actually costs to run. So I would imagine the route is still being subsidised by about £18000 per year

£9 per week isn't too bad then.

It is a side track - but in terms of subsidised bus travel for older people I would be interested in a cost benefit analysis of this. Although it is not essential, I know elderly people who use this to access services that will increase their physical and mental health. So it may save money for NHS and other services?

natation I almost mentioned the free bus pass thing in my opener,but thought it may sound like sour grapes on my part.
I'm glad you mentioned it though.Whilst I think it is a fantastic help to a lot of older people I do think it should be means tested.
The council has admitted that the reason these cuts are happening is because they are not getting enough back to cover the cost of the free bus pass scheme.

School buses are now more expensive than standard buses round here. We buy a standard 3 month child pass for DS at £110, but it means he can use buses at weekends etc.

Just because a school is "only" 2.5miles away it doesn't follow that its possible to walk or cycle.

To get to my catchment secondary school a child would have to go along roads with no pavements and fast traffic - only someone with a death wish would even think about walking and I wouldn't feel safe cycling there myself and certainly wouldn't allow my child to.

Not everyone lives in town with footpaths, getting to school in a rural county isn't always easy - I'm guessing ramblinrose doesn't live in the centre of Derby.

Thank you for your support lborolass
His walk/cycle to school would not be an easy one. The main road they would have to tackle during rush hour traffic is an accident blackspot with cars coming from all directions (no crossing). I don't even feel confident using it.

And you're right, we're not in the centre of Derby.

We get free transport due to road safety issues (we are under the 3miles direct route though more by car) could you not cite road safety issues? For us it because there is no footpath on part of the journey, well outside our house. Otherwise you will have to walk, cycle or pay bus. Maybe you could do half and half?

how utterly rude.

my last post was to neutrinoghost of course

I think it IS much more difficult to comprehend how far away 2 1/2 miles is when you live more rurally.

oh good, I do try not to be rude first thing of a Thursday morning:o

Wow, you're a charmer, neutrinoghost .

It's worth thinking about where you choose to live in terms of schools if you have kids.

Agincourt

Could you find a longer route that is safer? I would prefer a safe 3 mile journey to a scary 2.5 mile one.
Otherwise, club together with other local parents and book a minibus taxi for the journeys. They should give you a discount for block group bookings, and you could get 10 or so kids in a minibus.

Is there any scheme for yearly or termly passes paid for in advance ... Sometimes these work out cheaper. Tbh altho it's a whacking % increase it's actually still quite good value. I paid £1.50 a day and I left school in 1997! Bristol is an expensive city.

What about a walking bus?

"DoesNotGiveAFig Thu 12-Jan-12 10:00:50
It's worth thinking about where you choose to live in terms of schools if you have kids."

Yes, but that takes for granted that everyone has a choice. Alot of us who are in rental properties don't have a choice, we have to take what is available. Also learning to drive and running a car is an expensive business, those who live in rural areas shouldn't be pushed into any more poverty than they already are. Obviously I don't know the OP financial situation but I think it's easy to overlook the problems rural and semi rural communities face when things like their bus services are cut or the price is increased by 100% without warning.