The Green Bus will be issuing their new routes on Monday for 2021/2022

*But they will do a complete overhaul of the routes once they have their final numbers, two weeks before school starts. And when you complain, they’ll point you to their T&Cs, which state that routes are subject to change without notice.*

Yes, they do change them just before they start.

They’ll issue the proposed routes next week.

What they tend to do then, is take their buses along each of the routes to check what they are proposing is feasible.

Oh god really?! I’m going to need to decide which bus ds gets and don’t really want to pay for the pass if it’s likely to change

Usually the changes aren't too drastic.

For example, this time last year they issued the proposed routes and one of their new routes to AGS was proposed to go right by our house.

However the final route didn't go past our house, but a 5 minute drive away!

Last year I bought a pass for our bus at the beginning of March. Our first direct debit was paid on 1 August. On 13 August, we were notified that our bus route was changed to a different bus (same bus stop, though), but this new route covered many more miles, adding 45 minutes to my child’s daily commute.

My DD1 is at KEFW and gets the bus (5 minute drive to nearest stop) however due to B’ham catchment changes, the Green Bus have said in today’s email, that the service from September, has been comprehensively revised for certain routes.

We are awaiting to see the impact this has for DD!

We have been using the Green Bus now for almost 8 years. Over that time there have been changes each year to the routes. One year this resulted in a journey time of 1 hour and 10 minutes! Current journey is now approx 45 minutes.

With the current routes we have a choice of 2 that ds could get so hopefully atleast one of those will still be viable when they release the new routes.

I know it’s likely to vary service to service but are the buses generally quite full? I’m guessing this year is a different kettle of fish with potentially more people choosing to drop their kids off than put them on the bus. But in a normal year?

Hello, all.

I have seen that coming from Solihull way to Stratford there is also the option of a private bus- SKS. Does anyone have experience/recommendations between the GreenBus and SKS services?

Also- how did the buses handle the cancelling of school and the up front payment this year- was it all just money lost? Hoping it won’t be an issue at all next year and it will be full steam ahead/kids on site as normal next year, but just curious.

Thanks!

**this is my first post! I haven’t meant to be such a lurker, but it took awhile for my account to be activated**

I believe there was a SKS service via Johnson’s but I think it is now via Meadeay coaches. Might be an idea to contact them directly and they might be able to point you in the right direction.

We use Ridleys from Kenilworth. No refunds were offered.