Best option for student travel

foolofbeans

My child is attending the local college which is more than 10 miles away from home. I travel in the same direction for work so they have tagged along for the journey. I am now looking at another job in the opposite direction and need to decide on best (cheapest) options for child to get to and from college.
A college coach service is available at a cost of £500 per year but is restricted to one journey in to college at 8am and one journey home at 5pm. As my child's course is only for three days and didn't start until 9:30am and ended by 3pm we did not buy a ticket. The course has recently increased to 4 days and ending later so the coach may be more suitable but I am awaiting a response to see if the college allows a pro-rata payment towards the cost. It is not feasible to pay £500 for the few months left at college and it would be cheaper to catch the train.
Which brings me to train travel. We have a train station nearby so I could drop off and pick up child but the cost of tickets is obscene. A monthly pass would cost £158 and yet would only be used for 3/4 days a week.
I have looked into a 16-25 railcard which reduces the daily return to just over £5 which is great but the terms state it can only be used on a minimum fare cost of £12 before 10am. Obviously most students travel before 10am so this is a bit useless for us.
Does anybody have advice on the best and cheapest options to get a child to college? There are no public bus services until after 10am although there are return services that could be used but we would then need to pay for a single train journey there and a single bus journey back and a return train journey is actually cheaper.
Help!

elverson

Some station names would help.

Assuming your child is 16+ how about cycling in? Most people can do 10 miles in an hour unless it's a very hilly route.

jon81uk

Does the local council offer subsidised train travel as well as the coach? Thats what I did to get to college in the next town when I was 17.

foolofbeans

elverson wrote: »

Assuming your child is 16+ how about cycling in? Most people can do 10 miles in an hour unless it's a very hilly route.

I don't know of anyone that has ever cycled 10 miles to and from school/college/work. Not even cycling enthusiasts.
The road does have hilly parts but I'd be more worried about the rural roads and the speed that cars travel. Thank you for the idea though.

foolofbeans

jon81uk wrote: »

Does the local council offer subsidised train travel as well as the coach? Thats what I did to get to college in the next town when I was 17.

The college does offer subsidised train travel to students from the next town but it seems 10 miles away just isn't far away enough.
College have said a bus pass can be bought for the college service for £17.50 a week. Seems quite steep for 3 days travel and just one journey in and out but that looks like the cheapest option.

anitawilliams

Exactly true said.

samfuller1

I cycled 15 miles to and from Uni in the month of March, saved myself about £130. Took an hour each way including Shooters hill