30 Aug 2016, 9:54 pm
#626
(28 Aug 2016, 12:03 pm)S813 FVK St Bede's Lanchester have requested a fuller explanation as to why the school buses have been excluded from the £1 scheme. The statement is expected on Tuesday.
The statement has now been released:
"Our buses to St Bede's Lanchester are dedicated buses that provide a door to door service, picking pupils up near to their homes, and taking them directly to, and from, the school grounds, at starting and finishing times, without the need to change buses. They are operated as part of a partnership with the school, and we work with them to amend the routes in line with the changing number of pupils each year, and adjust the number and capacity of buses that we use in order to ensure that all pupils are accommodated, currently providing 12 buses.
As they are not part of our normal local bus network, they do have a higher cost of operation as many of the buses are used solely for these services, yet still need to be taxed, insured, maintained and staff employed to drive them. Therefore, we are unable to offer our new £1 fares for people aged 18 and under on these services. However, as part of our partnership with the school, we offer all pupils at St Bede's in years 7 to 11 a discounted ticket for just ten monthly payments of £47 (equivalent to a daily return fare, over the school year, of less than £2.50 per day). These tickets give travel to and from school before 6pm on schooldays on any Go North East bus, are loaded onto our "key" smartcard, and are the best value ticket for pupils.
There are no changes to the other fares charged on these services.
Whilst there are a small number of other bus services that operate through Lanchester, these are not timed to coincide with the school start and finish times, do not enter the school grounds and capacity on them is limited.
Full details are available at
http://www.gonortheast.co.uk/stbedes/"
