Are school buses putting people off public transport for life?

“First impressions count” and I fear we are not giving the best first impression of public transport, when we subject our children to five years of school buses.

Putting school services aside for moment, our local bus network includes some pretty good services: Harrogate’s award winning no 36 with its bright and spacious fleet; York’s extensive modern electric fleet; and the scenic Coastliner network.

School buses, however, are something quite different.

I live in a relatively rural area, and therefore, as in many areas, children are taken to secondary school on school buses arranged by the local authority.

When a bus has served a decade of carrying passengers around London, it moves to the suburbs.

Then, when it’s tired of that and approaching its 20th birthday it retires to Yorkshire to become a school bus.

Local authorities often take a keen interest in the punctuality of buses in their area, demanding explanations from commercial operators when punctuality drops. Traffic Commissioners have a target whereby 95% of services should depart from timing points between 1 minute early and 5 minutes late.

However, where the local authority is providing the bus service, there seems a much more laissez-faire approach to punctuality. I can’t recall our school bus picking up less than 10 minutes late. It is usually at least 15 minutes late vs timetable to school, and often so late that its pupil passengers are late for the start of the school day.

There’s a merry-go-round of unaccountability between the school, two local authorities, and the bus company, who blindly assure that they have rigorous procedures in place to ensure a safe and punctual service, which I can only assume is based on a different time zone.

It’s no surprise therefore that I hear phrases like ‘I can’t wait until I no longer have to get the bus’ or descriptions of the ‘funny noise’ or ‘funny smell’ that was emanating from the bus that day.

I know there will be reasons which no doubt include budgets, fear of damage by school children, or punctuality hindered by waiting for late children at earlier stops. Nonetheless, we’ve instilled a belief that buses are old and worn, often late, and something you can aspire to avoid once you’ve left school.?

School bus provision seems to be treated as a 'necessary evil'. An overhead the local authority begrudgingly has to fund and provide. It could be a captive marketing opportunity to ingrain beliefs and habits for a lifetime.

Ironically, many local authorities invest money in discounted travel for apprentices, and those new to work, to try to win them over to public transport. Perhaps that same focus and investment is needed on school buses.

4/10 must try harder.