School bus cost more than public transport! Opinions please

Cameron

Hi
My daughter starts secondary school in a few weeks.

Although 12 miles away, sadly she wont get a free bus pass, such is life.

My council (Lancashire County Council) has offered a school bus pass (SBP) for £855 but discounted to £684 Bargain NOT!! :mad:

If we where to pay for a weekly / public bus pass (WPBP) £12 x 39 weeks = £468 - a massive £216 saving

However there are more benefits to a WPBP pass
1) If she had a SBP and missed the bus, or stayed behind for other activities or went to a friends house, then she could not use it and would have to buy a bus ticket.
2) With a WPBP she can go anywhere in the county to visit friends, shop etc 7 days a week for no extra charge - thats a 60 mile (Ribble Valley) range.

Being fair the SBP is a tad more convenient when comparing drops and pickups, but then again it takes longer!

Is this a quirk of my county or the distance or does anyone else find this to be the case

I know my options are limited "take it or leave it" but not without an argument. Whats your opinion?

Kind regards

Cameron

agrinnall

It's not clear from your post, is the SBP valid on a particular bus that the WPBP cannot be used on?

If so, can she get to school in time using the buses that are available on the WPBP? If she can then it sounds like it would make financial sense to go for that option. The only thing to consider is what her friends will be doing, if they are all going on the school bus and she can't that might be a social problem for her.

Pleut

Wow that does seem quite strange. Personally I'd go for the WPBP because as you say she'll be able to use it all the time.

Agrinnall, if it's like when I was at school the School Bus is just for students and has nothing to do with the normal buses so the WPBP wouldn't be able to be used on it.

Cameron

agrinnall wrote: »

It's not clear from your post, is the SBP valid on a particular bus that the WPBP cannot be used on?

If so, can she get to school in time using the buses that are available on the WPBP? If she can then it sounds like it would make financial sense to go for that option. The only thing to consider is what her friends will be doing, if they are all going on the school bus and she can't that might be a social problem for her.

The SBP is only valid for a particualr special "school bus" and from one stop to another.

She can get to school in time using WPBP (actually quicker)- only issue she has to walk further to the bus stop - it is very likely her friends will get the WPBP - as £200 quid + benefits is hard to resist!

What I dont understand is the illogical pricing, the school buses are organised by the council, and the local buses are heavily subsidised by the same council.

I can only assume that the council are on a mission to either make a large profit from parents to scared to give there kidddy winks any freedom or they want to run the school bus service down.

I dont know what I'm moaning about. I will obviously do whats best for us. ..... Which will mean my daughter gets a weekly bus pass, becomes more independent, which leaves the School bus service without another fool to pay there overpriced charges, which in turn will means they don't make as much money, so next year they put there charges up which means less people pay, leaving the silly people who don't care having to pay more. Perfect result really. Just market forces.

I'll still enjoy the rant and squirming of the Council managers/directors trying to justify it though

Cameron

Pleut wrote: »

Wow that does seem quite strange. Personally I'd go for the WPBP because as you say she'll be able to use it all the time.

Agrinnall, if it's like when I was at school the School Bus is just for students and has nothing to do with the normal buses so the WPBP wouldn't be able to be used on it.

Another point I didnt mention the public transport bus actually goes further on a school day just to drop of the kids! :O

fannyadams

our school doesn't have a school bus service so all the children catch public bus/cycle/walk/are driven there by mummy or daddy.
We can apply for a free all in one card which means that my son only pays 50p/journey on the bus. at 2 busses a day that's £2. a weekly bus pass is £10. I tried buying him a monthly one (£40) and he lost it (sigh).
He leaves our house on the half 6 and gets to school at 8am. For the way home he gets in at half 5.

agrinnall

The illogical pricing is probably a ploy by the council, if everyone uses the normal bus then they can point at the lack of use of the school bus service and axe it.

martindow

Are you sure the weekly tickets are valid all day? Sometimes cheaper tickets can only be used after 9am for example.

Assuming the ticket can be used I think the major issue as others have said is social. If others use the school bus it could be daunting for an eleven year old doing a 12 mile journey on her own without her friends' moral support.

System

Don't forget that the the School Bus will probably go to areas that are not served by normal public transport and these vehicles are normally procured as a hire vehicles. The cost of hire, even on a LA/EA contract, is significantly higher than the running costs of a normal scheduled bus which a bus ticket is designed to cover.

The cost that an LA/EA charges is normally an average for all the transport provided. As an example, in my area, being rural, a large number of taxis are hired for one or two children each because it is impractical to use coaches to pick them up. This is a lot more expensive per person than a 53 seater coach to hire

notanewuser

Presumably there are children that are entitled for a free pass for the bus? If so, you're also paying for some of them.

sillygoose

School buses are a nightmare, my son start secondary school too in September and its likely we will have to pay £650 a year for the council school bus as no public ones go that way. We are not well off but can't get a free pass because my son had the audacity to work really hard to get a grammar school place.

Even worse the council are so shambolic 2 weeks to go and they have still not worked out who can have a seat on the bus, we are down the priority list as we have the unfortunate situation of living on a county border so whilst geographically perfectly sensible to go to this school, there is no ability for councils to cooperate and sort it out.

Given the chance over again it (and other issues) would certainly make me pick where I lived more carefully than just - nice house, nice road. You don't realise all this before having kids!