Hi,

I know that KEGS doesn't provide any school bus.
If my son has to go KEGS, he has to take 70 First Essex Bus.
Is there any other option available?

Many thanks
Rochika

I have a feeling that the timetable between Braintree and Chelmsford is a bit idiosyncratic, for want of a better term, but have you looked at the train?

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No longer a Kegs mum as DS now at university but one of my son’s best friends lived in Braintree and I seem to remember he travelled by train each day but arrived quite early each morning due to , as Toadmum mentions, a rather idiosyncratic timetable. I think the times for going home were more convenient.

My eldest daughter lives in Braintree and I visited her last week taking the 70 bus and was pleasantly surprised at how quick it was, not so pleasantly surprised how much it cost though.

The 70 and now the 42 both serve Braintree-Broomfield Road, Chelmsford where both the boys' and girls' grammar schools are. You can check the First Bus timetable but the times have always worked well for us.

My son gets the 70 from White Court to KEGS. The times are OK - he usually gets the one that leaves about 7.05 from the Braintree bus station or he has no chance of getting in on time. Most of the Braintree boys get the 6.55. Coming home there is now a 42 that goes through to Braintree as well as the usual 70 as often the buses were overloaded - the one my son gets leaves at about 3.55 from KEGS. We looked at trains but as we live in Rayne, not Braintree, it was more difficult to get him to the train station than to the bus stop. We also felt the train service wasn't reliable enough or frequent enough. All the KEGS boys I know take the bus and there's a few of them now. I did speak at length to Mr Carter regarding bus provision, but apparently, although there are enough students from the Braintree area and Gt Leighs / Notley etc. to make a service viable, because of an agreement between CSSE and First Essex, KEGS can't promote a bus service with another company. I did find a company willing to take on the route and provide a service identical to that which First provides for the Colchester grammars, but as it was impossible to let parents at KEGS know about it (as school could not promote it) I didn't get anywhere. My daughter has just been offered CCHS so we're going to move to Chelmsford - easier and cheaper! 2 lots of fares soon adds up

Interesting from a legal perspective to know how 'promote' is defined.
Doesn't impact you now but I wonder what they would do if DS started handing out flyers for the alternative during his journey....

They were quite happy for DS to hand out flyers and even make an announcement in assembly. Unfortunately DS was not too enamoured of that idea... I did make the point that often First does not hold up its end of the "deal" it has with CSSE. If the bus is full then it will not stop, even though they are supposed to make provision for the students. My son was even made to get off the bus last term as it was too full. As he had thrown away his ticket as soon as he got on the bus, he was then stranded at Broomfield hospital. First generously gave me a £5 travel voucher for the inconvenience. He's been injured on the bus due to the "maniac" (the words of another KEGS mother who happened to be travelling on the same bus and called me as she was so worried DS may have concussion!) driver suddenly slamming on his brakes. DS was sitting centre back and went flying down the aisle. Even though the mum told me the whole bus was shouting at the driver to stop as a child was laying on the floor not moving, apparently the driver didn't hear (not even the passengers that went right up to him it seems!) and was unaware there was a problem so no action was taken. Buses rarely run to time, sometimes they don't turn up at all, and there is no choice in service - the 70 is the only bus that services Braintree to Chelmsford. KEGS was / is intending to set up a bus service from Brentwood as there are now so may students from that area, but they have an excellent rail service and don't really need it. As I said to Mr Carter, KEGS is our LOCAL grammar school and there is no dedicated transport to it, yet there is to another grammar that's twice the distance! Madness. He did agree