disproportionate bus journey times.

[Tolstoy]

I am curious about the time it takes for DC to travel home via school transport.

My DS catches a school bus to schools that are approx 4/5 miles away ( max 10 mins in the car). However he doesn't get home until 4.30. The first school pick up time is 3.30 I believe. This is the same time he used to get home when he travelled the 18 miles to his previous school and that involved one bus change and co-ordinating DC from 4 different schools not just two.

I know DC who travel from our local school to another town nearby are getting back much earlier. Does anyone else's DC have journey times out of proportion with the distance they travel?

[Goodheart]

Isn't that the very nature of buses in general (not just school buses)? They never take the most direct route, as they have to cover as many possible pick-up/drop-off points as possible. They always seem to snake their way around as many villages as they can en route. Perhaps the example you mention of the journey to a neighbouring town is just down to luck in terms of the route that particular bus takes.

I'll be attending an open day at a potential school tomorrow (not in Bucks) which the AA web site reckons is a 15 minute drive away. I've checked the school bus timetable for the route we're on: it'd pick-up my DC at 7:25am to be in school for 8:25am. That's quite a difference: 1 hour vs. 15 minutes. (Of course, the AA web site is probably ignoring rush-hour traffic - I shall find out for sure tomorrow.)

[Peridot]

That's why my children prefer the train. We are lucky in our area that they have the choice of train or public bus to school. The bus takes much longer because it goes via a circuitous route and is dependent on traffic and constant roadworks. The train is direct and takes about 8 minutes; then a shortish walk (one child's school is further than the other). I would not have considered schools for them that would have taken an hour to get to! On the odd occasion when there is a problem with the train, they can catch the bus as a backup option. It would also be perfectly possible for them to walk, but that would of course take longer.

[Tolstoy]

I would not have considered schools for them that would have taken an hour to get to! .

It is this point that got me thinking. I read posts on here frowning upon parents who put their DC through long journey times and the assumption is that the DC is being sent to a school many miles away when this may not be the case. We had no choice but to send our DS to this school and it is the second closest secondary to where we live and there is no other transport.

Goodheart, half of the time seems to be taken up going between the two schools but no idea how many stops there are between them, they are only a mile apart so surely there shouldn't be that many, if any! as DC are more than capable of walking one mile. My others walk further than that to get to their schools.

[scary mum]

The busses will be queuing to get in & out of the schools, I bet that's the main delay. I know Bucks have doubled up on a lot of busses this year, with children going back past their own school half an hour after leaving. We are fortunate in that my DCs' school is about 5 miles away but they are home in 20-25 minutes. With regard to your other post, DS1's bus fare will go from the £80-ish admin charge to several hundred pounds next year - does seem a little excessive.

[Tolstoy]

Going back past your school Gosh that must be frustrating, sitting on a bus that's going in the wrong direction for half an hour, maybe that's what's happening to my DS's.

At least he doesn't have to be on it from the start then, ideally he could be using the time for study:lol:

[Peridot]

Hi Tolstoy - we live in a suburban/urban area of outer London and my children are lucky to have a good choice of travel options. We are also lucky to have good grammars and comprehensives near by, so my criteria for maximum travel distances are possibly different from those of people in different areas, particularly rural areas.

[kittymum]

My view on these things is that you should be able to get to the school, in a car, within 15 / 20 mins. Busses will always take longer, but as long as you can drop them to school when miss the bus / attend parents eve / pick them up from town etc without too much effort then it's OK.

[southbucks3]

The boys all have journey times less than thirty mins, the eldest has a free space and a journey time of twenty mins on the bus as it is nearly full by the time it gets to our village.
Bus journey times are just one small consideration when opting for schools miles away though.
Obviously if more local children used the buses to their nearest school, the route to and from school would be more direct as the seats would fill up on two routes rather than one round the houses route. Just another blip intense the system I'm afraid.

[Moon unit]

My DS lives two miles from his school which starts at 8.30 but leaves the house for the eight min walk to the bus stop at 7.15. The bus stops outside the school door.
All the local boys aim for the same bus so there is no chance of being late. Not sure what time he arrives exactly but according to his canteen bill a bacon butty is consumed and there is still plenty of stress free time to get organised for the day.