£430 for one term of college bus fare

[Caerulea]

We've one secondary in our catchment & it has no 6th form so kids have to go to the nearest college which is 15 odd miles away - 1 hour 40 by bus.

We've just paid £430 for ONE TERM of bus fare!

The full year, if you could pay all at once, is £950.

If we do it termly it's going to be around £1.5k.

Daily would be £9

Isn't this just wrong on so many levels? Why are there deals at all & not just a set price? This is a low socio-economic area with low academic achievement & very rural. It's almost double what the first term was last year for DS2

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.

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)

Is owning a moped a possibility?

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

That's the thing, we are a very small group indeed & places like this are very used to being bottom of the pile for literally everything so we just roll our eyes & suck it up. everything is so expensive here in terms of utilities & fuel etc that this just gets added to the list & we move on.

I'm not generally pro the 16yo vote despite having a pretty clued up one myself, but maybe the rural ones could actually get heard for a change!

I think that grinds me the most. Why isn't it standardised? These aren't earlybird tickets for Taylor bloody Swift or a festival, why are there deals at all?

It's very rural & these roads are dangerous & narrow. You only see bikers on the bigger roads in the driest of weather & rarely moped riders at all over any distance. Maybe the odd one in towns or villages - it just isn't safe

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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!