Free bus travel 6 months on. The good...........and the bad

[WeAllHaveWings]

The free bus travel scheme has been fantastic for ds(18) and his friends. They enjoyed a quite a few independent day/overnight trips during the summer holidays and are now using it to travel from Ayrshire to uni in Glasgow daily, sometimes twice if they come home then head back up for freshers events at night.

But for our town it has been a nightmare, cummulating in this notice today

TRAVEL: Unfortunately due to serious anti-social behaviour by large groups of youths, no bus services will be picking up or dropping off in Bus Station after 18:00.
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Stagecoach have said: “The safety of our staff and customers is paramount so the decision has been made to use alternative bus stops out with the bus station. A list of where our evening will be leaving from will follow.”

Huge groups of young teens, the ones that usually hang about in parks/fields, are using the free buses as moving social clubs, bus hopping and being anti social and intimidating.

Police don't seem to be doing much about it so far. Hopefully they will find a way soon to ban those abusing the scheme without impacting those who really appreciate the benefit.

Kids that previously walked to school now take the bus a few stops due to it being free.

How do they show entitlement for free travel? TFL are fairly good about withdrawing zip cards for anti social behaviour. Travel and ID/photo details are logged along with CCTV on the actual board so can be prosecuted too. Might be easier for drivers to refuse people on buses with no card in London though as I assume routes are busier (you mention fields)

It is a new free bus scheme for under 22s in Scotland. They use their YoungScot/NEC.

I think because it is so new they are unclear how to deal with, also police are struggling because they are quite large groups and with them being children it makes things difficult. There are implications kicking a large group of tipsy children (you know the ones that usually hang about parks/beaches/fields) off a bus when you don't know where they live and without a way to get home. There isnt enough police to police all the buses, they would just end up playing hide and seek with them.

I'm a real champion of this scheme,.I think it's brilliant. But not without teething problems.

My DS is entitled to a free school bus pass as we live over 2 miles from school. But many children nearby aren't entitled to the free school travel and use the NEC card to get on the school bus, meaning that frequently the buses are too full and children who are entitled to free school travel haven't been able to board the bus. This didn't happen previously because those children wouldn't be able to get the school bus and would have walked or collected by parents, but now the school bus drivers have been told they have to accept NEC. It's not too bad at the moment but the 2.5mile walk home in the winter will be brutal and actually not that safe in the dark. The little S1s stand no chance against bigger kids pushing ahead to get on the bus.

No knowledge of the youngscot card I must admit but sounds like it isn't scanned and then journey history logged?I think this is the important bit of policing that is used in London for the free travel scheme. There is a behaviour clause you agree to when you sign up and then as every journey is logged off there is trouble it can be traced back easily. So avoids the hide and seek element trying to catch them at the time.

If it's unlimited free bus travel for all under 22 they will need to up capacity as that's about of people. But I expect that is difficult if not bringing in much revenue.

This^
DDs and friends at school and uni taking bus for journeys they would have previously walked for 20 mins!

Was it not predicted on Scotnet that the buses would become mobile park benches particularly on the circular routes?

Never thought about the issue of service buses becoming over crowded near schools. But yes I can well imagine that kids would take the bus if it was free.

How to encourage kids to walk more, give them a bus pass?

And that's been in a fairly nice summer- wait for the weather to change and more of the young people will be looking for a lift or somewhere warm to hang out.

I haven’t heard of any trouble on the buses round here (outskirts of Edinburgh), well not yet anyway, and fingers crossed there won’t be.

My 14 year old has yet to use his but my 17 year old uses it all the time now. His best mate has just gone off to Glasgow university so he's already shuttled himself back and forth a few times. Uses it to get to work and also to college - which is on the exact opposite side of Edinburgh! So it’s saved us a small fortune already.

School buses for my youngest son are private hires that they get a pass from school to use. So pupils can’t get on the bus with their young scot cards thankfully!

Glad to hear our local issues with the scheme are not widespread as ds and his friends have been making very good use of it. It is one of those things that a few kids will try and, if not nipped in the bud, others copy and it quickly gets out of control.

Our local facebook is very active after the stagecoach announcement today, sounds like the local MP is going to have a very full mailbox by morning!

Odd.

Not seen anything like that in Greater Manchester or with TfL

Not odd, given that this thread is on Scotsnet about travel in Scotland. 🙄

Has been good for my older teens. My eldest now gets the bus into Uni free of charge rather than paying £3.50 or whatever for the train. He was hardly in last year but it's going to make a big difference this coming year. DD went through to Edinburgh on the bus with a friend for shopping in the summer holidays, they also went on a school trip to the Fringe by bus which really cut the costs as there was no transport.

In general I am not a fan of the Scottish government dishing out freebies indiscriminately, I think means testing and targetted support is much better. But from a purely selfish point of view, it is saving money for my kids.

DH is a bus driver, we're over in the east, and he's been having a lot of trouble with antisocial behaviour with teens on some routes too. I can't say much more than that as I believe the management are looking into it at the moment but I've shown him this thread as he's had to put official complaints in about recent behaviour.

Our school buses are private hires too, as in only school children can board and not open to general public? But the drivers have been told they need to accept NEC alongside the council school passes, meaning the buses are too full and many children further afield not able to board.

My son and his pals use it to go and explore all over. It's a great thing.

Took bloody months to get it though with and nightmare of an application process.

Police have now given a comment to say they have received no complaints about anti social behaviour at the bus station from the public or from Stagecoach. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Stagecoach have not commented. A bit strange of them to take matters into their own hands without working with the police first 🤔

My 16 year old has been using it to get from school to work three days a week. Unfortunately the busses are so unreliable, not running to timetable and he’s sometimes waiting over an hour for a bus. He doesn’t use it to get to school and back. He actually prefers walking or cycling.