Any update on the new coach service to Latymer?

[exam2019]

That’s it really!

[Melannie]

Hi

We received an email about it.
- It costs around £2200 for the year with no break clause
- Annual payment only; can't pay per term or on a PAYG system
- Does exactly the same route as the 34 for us
- Only one bus in the mornings. You snooze, you lose
- It does drop you right outside the school

Conclusion for us: we're going to see how the 34 goes and save the money. Struggling to justify spending the £2200 per year when the bus is free. Also, if you're running late or need to go in or come home at different times (eg) Friday earlies, you have the flexibility of catching the next 34 bus, whereas the CoachDirect service is only once in the mornings and twice in the evenings (TBC which stops in the evenings).

I guess you're only with Latymer students on the CoachDirect service, but we're relaxed about our DD being on public transport. However, totally understand others who prefer the private coach service. It does drop and pick you up right outside the school, which is a bonus, but there's quite a large number of Latymer children on the 34 walking together from what I hear, so there's give and take on that too

[Daogroupie]

Two thousand two hundred pounds up front????

Even the private schools let you pay termly.

Who has that kind of money to hand? DG

[ToadMum]

£2200??

Our grammar schools consortium contracts services from 20+ miles away for lower fares than that.

On the part of the route which doesn't follow a Tfl bus free to use for an initial layout of ?£15, does it offer a bespoke pickup service, with an accompanying adult knocking on each child's front door? Given the hoo-hah about how the school doesn't want pupils who live more than yay far away from the school and the general availability of public transport in London, is this really providing a necessary service to those in catchment but in a complete public transport black hole, or a very expensive play on parental anxiety?

X-posted with DG

[hexic]

Ludicrous idea. I haven't heard of anyone planning to take it up. There was one kid going by taxi in term 1, though, so maybe...

[ToadMum]

One year, our consortium canvassed parents for interest in a new route serving the school that DD was at. Originating relatively close to the school and covering a journey that anyone living anywhere along it and already at the school would make by public bus service at half the cost, or by train at a quarter to a third of the cost of the private bus

No doubt the (probably) parent of the incoming year 7 who had badgered the bus company or the consortium to offer it was mightily peeved that no-one else shared their horror of public transport and the Great Unwashed with whom their little darling might have to travel.

[exam2019]

Oh wow! £2200....
That works out around £11.60 per day....
I wonder why it’s so expensive.
Forest School’s most expensive route is £4.80.

What were the routes? For 11.60 I’d expect super convenient taxi-style door-to-door Service!!

[thisisnuts]

Oh wow! £2200....
That works out around £11.60 per day....

In immortal words of Shaggy: yowsers!

All the more remarkable given how strictly they're trying to enforce the catchment area even for the entrance exam. One assumes the coach service will not extend into the wilderness beyond.

[copella]

My understanding is this is a private bus service. The school makes no profit from the service. There are lots of free TfL buses which many pupils use. There is also a dedicated free school bus 616. Given how expensive it is and how few pickups it may soon not be worth running.

[CeeCee74]

May I ask when & how the information was sent out. I had expressed interest in the service & have heard nothing.
Am shocked by the cost - Had thought might be nice to just settle into the first term using it but maybe not!!

Thanks