School Bus passes

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apillow
Posts: 83
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:15 pm

School Bus passes

Post by apillow »

Hi ,
I am new to Birmingham and want to know about school bus passes. Where I live at the minute, free bus passes are offered to secondary school kids who live under 3 mile radius from school and also to children who are taking free school meals. What is the criteria in Birmingham? Does everyone other than PP should pay for the bus pass? Thank you.
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: School Bus passes

Post by ToadMum »

apillow wrote:Hi ,
I am new to Birmingham and want to know about school bus passes. Where I live at the minute, free bus passes are offered to secondary school kids who live under 3 mile radius from school and also to children who are taking free school meals. What is the criteria in Birmingham? Does everyone other than PP should pay for the bus pass? Thank you.
This might help?

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads ... and_carers
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
KenR
Posts: 1506
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: School Bus passes

Post by KenR »

You generally have to pay if you live under 2 miles from the school or if you choose to attend a grammar school and there was another secondary school within 2 miles. Having said that, the student bus passes in the West Midlands area are actually quite reasonably priced - most students go for a term plus pass £96/term
apillow
Posts: 83
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:15 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by apillow »

ToadMum wrote:
apillow wrote:Hi ,
I am new to Birmingham and want to know about school bus passes. Where I live at the minute, free bus passes are offered to secondary school kids who live under 3 mile radius from school and also to children who are taking free school meals. What is the criteria in Birmingham? Does everyone other than PP should pay for the bus pass? Thank you.
This might help?

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads ... and_carers

Thank you ToadMum. It is very useful.
apillow
Posts: 83
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 1:15 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by apillow »

KenR wrote:You generally have to pay if you live under 2 miles from the school or if you choose to attend a grammar school and there was another secondary school within 2 miles. Having said that, the student bus passes in the West Midlands area are actually quite reasonably priced - most students go for a term plus pass £96/term

Thank you KenR. I appreciate your reply.
OldTrout
Posts: 386
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by OldTrout »

Hi Apillow

Just confirming what KenR said - term bus passes in Birmingham are good value and if you are worried about your ‘little one’ going by public bus please be assured tons of kids do so - twice a day they are basically school buses and my daughter travels with a huge group of friends.

There also are green buses which are slightly more expensive but do the journey only for school kids.

At some point later this spring there will be welcome evenings at the grammars (and private KE schools) just for parents where this kind of thing will be explained and you will also meet other parents and discuss how they are planning to have their child travel to school. Try and meet that parent who has an older child at the school - they will know the drill and save you a lot of time.

We ordered small fry’s bus pass on line with West Midlands travel over the summer (you do need to allow a few weeks for delivery) and it has worked out great.

Best of luck with everything

OT

Just to add most comprehensives have welcome evenings too - in case you are wondering. I know it can be bad timing but it really is a good idea to go along to this parent meeting if you can.
Ricky74
Posts: 732
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 1:55 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by Ricky74 »

We buy our pass weekly as my son has 'misplaced' a few since Sept.

I think if you apply online you can pay a bit extra to protect the pass if it's lost, but I think there were a few exceptions (replacing one loss pass, then replacing additional lost passes for a fee, applying in writing and keeping receipts)

so we have opted paying a little more for a weekly version (which does involve going to Walsall Bus Station every Sat to renew!) :o
Caveman47
Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:09 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by Caveman47 »

This post is proving to be very helpful.

Currently deciding what route my son will take as well.

Thanks for posting this topic.
crazycrofter
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:10 am

Re: School Bus passes

Post by crazycrofter »

If you’re going to be using bus/train/tram i’d recommend paying by monthly direct debit. These options give you two months free in the summer which is great when your kids want to meet up with friends.

Prices are around £30pm (so £300 a year) for bus, I think about £33 for train and then around £40 if you want more than one mode of transport. I got this option for my daughter in her first year but then she found some train buddies and hasn’t used the bus since, so I’ve reduced it to train only. I’m going to do the same for ds in year 8 ( currently using the green bus) so he has all the options. I’m secretly hoping he’ll decide he prefers the bus and save me £100 a year!
Caveman47
Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 5:09 pm

Re: School Bus passes

Post by Caveman47 »

Yeah I've seen that option.

There's the 74 bus which isn't too far from where we live but it is a 40 min bus ride which is quite long but it does drop him very close to HGS.

I'm also looking at the Green bus option.
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