Green Bus Services 2014-15

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KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by KenR »

Quite shocked to see a Green Bus very early this morning (circa 7:10 in Wythall) at the start of the new term, this is very much earlier than previous years

Just checked the Green Bus web site and it does appear they have merged a couple of the 5-ways bus routes resulting in a longer route and extended journey times. The 884 (which goes through Solihull, Dickens Heath and Wythall, including a diversion through Barnt Green ) now starts from Hay Mills on the Coventry Road at 6:27am and arrives at 5-Ways at 8:05.

3 hours of bus travel every day is a very long journey.

In the early days the Green Bus used to be at the Maypole at about 7:35
sbarnes
Posts: 583
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:30 pm

Re: Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by sbarnes »

Luckily the old CH2 has not had too much of a revamp; there is improved services on board too such as tracking that should work better than telling us our child is in South Africa, I kid you not. There is also 4G on board, whatever that means. As long as son can do some homework on the journey to school, that's what matters :lol:
Happy dad
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:10 am

Re: Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by Happy dad »

I think you will find most of them now start before 0700 and some before 0630. The tracking hardly ever works, or yo track the wrong bus, and as for reliability.......

The FW8 was withdrawn last October - our son now takes an extra 30 mins to get home and has to leave the house 15 minutes early. If we had our time again, may well have chosen BV simple for shorter journey times.
orianagirl
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:53 pm

Re: Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by orianagirl »

I have to agree that for the price they charge Green Bus is not value for money. Buses are usually overcrowded, hardly ever on time, tracking never works and the buses are known to break down. I know several friends of my DS (who go to KE Aston) have stopped using the green bus and are now getting the train to school and even with a 2 train journey they will be getting home a lot earlier and at a far cheaper cost than using the Green Bus.

Green Bus have made a lot of promises about tracking, wifi and buses not being over subscribed this year so we will wait and see how it pans out. Apparently they are only subscribed to 80% capacity this year so seems people might be voting with their feet and using other methods of getting their DC to school.
Happy dad
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:10 am

Re: Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by Happy dad »

The price is high but I would pay more if they actually had more direct routes. Why a bus starts in tividale and travels through sedgley towards Wolverhampton in the opposite direction to HEFW is beyond me. And then it spends 15 minutes doing a figure 8 in Halesowen.
orianagirl
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 8:53 pm

Re: Green Bus Services 2014-15

Post by orianagirl »

Happy dad I agree with you. Funnily enough I had a discussion with Green Bus only the other day about the new route of the bus my DS uses. They told me that they plan the routes by obtaining the postcodes of ALL the children from each of the schools they serve and plan the routes for each school around that information.
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