Is it normal for Y7s to have to stand in the school bus due to lack of seats?

[BravePotato]

PFB takes school bus to catchment school, about 30 minute drive over A road then into town.

He said he has to stand, as do about half of the Y7s as there are simply not enough seats. He did not mind, thought it was a bit of an adventure, and said cheerfully he "only fell over three times" when the bus went very fast around corners.

Is this normal?

Or should I speak to school? bus company? council?

The bus is free (well, the council pays as it is a catchment school further away than 3 miles), so not sure I can complain at all.

am I being PFB? Did not like the sound of this arrangement at all!

I think that if it's a private contract then there should be seats for everyone (certainly the case at my DDs school). Public bus is different,

Public bus as in a normal public transport bus?

this is a bus exclusively to take kids out of catchment to the school.

It does not stop for "civilians"

Is it a bus or a coach?

Hmm. Yes I think it's definitely worth checking with the school. Where we live it's all coaches. & places are allocated.

I thought legally there had to be enough seats for the kids.

Complain to the council, there will be a school transport dept. tell the school as well and hopefully they will complain as well. If there's an accident they won't have a leg to stand on......the council that is!

thanks.

About the question whether it is a bus or a coach...help, am not a native speaker and to me this means the same thing?

Does it have seatbelts? Buses normally don't, but coaches do.

Is it just for school children or does it pick up other passengers?

Sorry x post I see it is a school bus

no seat belts.

It is a private company. The school uses three different ones, depending on the route. This one does the route through our village. The council pays for the bus service.

It is an ancient double decker from before the seat belt era, I would guess.

just not happy, but there is no alternative.

If it's a coach, like this www.welcomebreak.co.uk/site/static/images/Coaches/Coaches.jpg then every child should have a seat and seat belt.

But if it's a bus, then I think it may be more of a grey area, as buses often give a capacity for seated + standing occupants - so may have seats for 30 and 10 standing.

There is a 3 to a double seat exception that can apply to school buses, where it means that 3 under 14's can sit on a seat for 2. Some councils allocate spaces on school transport using this rule for the calculation of how many students can be transported by each coach.

www.parliament.uk/Templates/BriefingPapers/Pages/BPPdfDownload.aspx?bp-id=SN00542

Hopefully I have given the link above correctly.

Kids falling over because the bus is going very fast round corners hardly sounds safe!

If it is a bus with provision for standing passengers and no seat belts, I would complain to the council and insist that they provide safer transport.

It is normal. It is free.

The document that justcallmethefixer links says that buses without seatbelts are urban buses for use in built up areas - which suggests that careering along A roads and going fast round corners is a job for coaches with seat belts.

We used to sit three to a double seat on our school use (which were definitely coaches, with no allocation for standing passengers) quite regularly. We would rather have stood, quite frankly, but the drivers would have none of it so the smallest ones had to squish up.

OP - the bus/coach will have a notice somewhere at the front stating it's capacity (x seated, y standing). If they are allowed to take standing passengers, then not much you can do. If not, I would raise it with the LEA.

Are you in Kent Bravepotato? This is exactly the same problem we had last year, and eventually we clubbed together with the parish council and complained.. We also went to the local paper who were happy to stick bus on the front page. KCC now provides a dedicated minibus for the 10 children travelling from our village and hamlet.

We get dozens of calls from parents about school transport - the truth is we have no control over it at all - some are council organised, some are private companies. We do our best to sort issues but have no leavers to pull.

Thanks for info and opinions! Clearly it is not that clear-cut.

I would not mind if our village wasn't on an a-road.

Thundering down these windy A-roads at 60MpH is not the same as driving through town, will check with other parents in the village what they think.

In Hants by the way

Well if its legal I would start a campaign against it being legal.

If there's an accident and some kid flies through the windscreen of the bus at 60mph you can bet all the politicians will wring their hands and say the law must be changed, kids safety must be a priority, etc. well it shouldn't take a kid dying to improve safety.

Like you say I can see it being ok''ish in a city centre, not on a A road.

thanks Viva, sometimes I no longer know if I am being precious or not

PI don't think you are been to be honest. You can't have a kid in a car without been belted up so how come on a bus at the same sppeed on the same road its ok for them to not even have a seat, never mind not have a seat belt.

If the council are providing the transport on a service bus they do not have to have seatbelts BUT THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STAND If there are not enough seats for the children (and under a certain age they can sit three to a 2 person seat) then the council has to provide alternative transport.
I know, because I have had a huge fight with the council about this.I foundthe council tried every trick I the book to wriggle out of it.
I eventually emailed our county councillor with video footage and an extra bus was provided within 48 hours.

Ok, I think I will have to do something.

I would, OP, as I often think of this tragic crash involving a school bus. You can see that sadly the collision occurred as children were out of their seats ot open a skylight, and therefore presumably not belted in.