£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

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

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

We're North Coast so really peaking out with narrow & dark lanes. How do you manage with the appaling driving at this time of year? I've had so many near misses this month with ppl pulling out of junctions, swerving, middle of the road driving - worst I've ever known it. The idea of being on a bike of any sort makes me feel ill, honestly.

Re the college - it's the 'new' one in Bodmin. Truro college seem to have cut buses to us entirely (DS1 went there) now.

It really is & it's not on imo. Make it a countrywide system rather than each council & college doing as they please. It really adds to the feeling that you're being screwed over

5 days, he's doing 4 a-levels. We don't have a timetable yet but there won't be any gaps & definitely no free days.

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

Only choice of school unless you wanted single sex.

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

It will be of little consolation, but my parents were making similar arguments to the council about the cost of transport to school in my 1980s rural Dorset school days. They ended up buying my younger sister a moped to get to 6th form college.

Of course, we weren't obliged to go to school for 6th form then, but I failed to pass my driving test until I was 19 (not for want of trying,) so I would have had as many issues getting to a job - more, in fact, as there was no public transport, just the school bus routes.

Rural children have never mattered when it comes to access to education.

Mine was similar. £6.50 a day. It drove me mad, especially when all the bus fares had a £2 cap but I was still paying £3.25 a journey.

My niece has to get the train and it’s a full fare because it’s before 9.30 and she’s over fifteen. I’ve got a feeling my sister pays £12 a day.

Your niece can get a 16-17 saver railcard for £35 a year and that will give her 50% discount even at peak times (why they can’t just sell the tickets to YP at this rate without a card I don’t know). The card does expire after a year or on 18th birthday whichever is sooner.

I think it really depends where you are, it would be hard work to even get out of the village due to the hill. It's just not a safe thing to be on where we are, I'm trying to think when I even last saw one lol.

I've also sat behind drivers who pass cyclists horrifically close cos there's not enough space to pass safely & it's all blind corners. You can sit behind a cyclist going 5mph for several miles cos there's nowhere safe to pass so some people lose their minds & do stupid shit instead.

Rural children have never mattered when it comes to access to education.

It really is this

Gosh that's absolutely shocking op. I am very grateful that kids and teens get free bus travel in London...i really think it should be the case throughout the country

This might be useful OP.

Post-16 Travel Assistance - Cornwall Council https://share.google/wqR94lRUTALAfcMsy

We get a bursary of either money towards travel or food if you’re income is under 35k.

Unfortunately our college have entirely separated themselves from that, the council has nothing to do with it :(

Good idea by the pp to tell the MP then.

We have the same situation except it's £1300 a year here and it's our catchment school. There will be some parents who can't keep their kids there for sixth form simply because of the cost. Apparently post 16 students should be able to get themselves to school, even if it's miles away down country roads which I would never dare cycle on in daylight, never mind in the dark.

We would have been able to drive DS because we WFH but he's decided to move on to a sixth form in a new school where the local bus is £1 per journey with a young person discount.

ETA there are no public buses between the village and the school.

We realised how difficult it would be to rely on public transport so made sure ours had applied for provisional licences before 17 then booked theory tests in advance to take as soon as they were 17 and then booked a test date ASAP followed by an intensive driving course.

Even so Summer born DC aren't likely to pass their tests until Xmas of year 13 at the earliest.

SEN transport for 16-18yo in my area is a flat £1700 per year. Doesn't matter whether its the nearest appropriate placement, or whether its a solo taxi or a seat in a minibus. It's not our fault our YP can't go to the local college... we can't choose a different setting.

Here it’s ok if you do a levels as the schools have 6th forms and even the villages are easily accessible to the towns by cycle to the schools BUT for non academic students it’s a different situation, the two technical colleges are about 1 hour 45-2 hours away in opposite directions, both involve long bus journeys then to change to another local bus, this is charged at £900 a year, though the colleges do fund up front and you repay monthly plus the passes are for standard passes so usable evenings and weekends.

Aren't those courses £1000's? They are here, a year ago I was quite 3.5k

More economic discrimination.

Not all families can buy extra cars.
Not all families can tax extra cars.
Not all families can insure 17 year olds on extra cars.
Not all families can pay for intensive driving lessons.
AND
Some children are born in August so it is physically impossible for them to have passed their test by 3rd September when term starts

Free bus travel for children should definitely be a thing everywhere!

I'm in Scotland and a few years ago the government brought in free bus travel for all under 22s. My DS was able to go to college the other side of the city without crippling us in bus fares!