It is an image that newspapers seemingly can’t get enough of.
The American-style yellow school bus has been pictured endlessly in print and online along with the same article about them coming to Britain soon.
The BBC in particular cannot get enough of these cute-looking buses despite the fact that they are used by approximately 1% of all school children in the UK.
It’s been a remarkable PR coup for transport giant First Group whose logo subtly adorns these buses.
But now, there is actually a story to write about and it comes from the Yellow School Bus Commission.
It sounds like something from Sesame Street, but is chaired by former Home Secretary David Blunkett with cross-party membership and was “established to examine and quantify the environmental, social, educational, time and cost benefits of a nationwide network of dedicated home to school transport.”
This commission seems to be driven (forgive the pun) by the bus industry with actual passengers not represented. However it has several local authority transport people on board (these puns just write themselves).
And the commission has produced a report which says a nationwide network of, wait for it, yellow school buses, would offer primary and secondary school pupils by giving them a safe journey to school, reducing congestion, reducing pollution and improving attendance times.
It says that the number of children being driven to school has doubled in the last 20 years. I’m sure we can all think of reasons why this has happened and agree that it is “not a good thing”.
Many schools have transport plans which they draft with help from their local authority.
However the school transport issue in my village is not lack of buses but lack of money.
There are three secondary schools which children can attend and all are far enough away to warrant free travel. However only one school is designated for receiving a travel subsidy so the children attending the other two have to pay their own bus fare. The county council is not obliged to extend its free travel policy and, for cash reasons, will not make an exception.
This term fares on schools services without subsidy haves gone up for the second year running and, again, at far more than inflation. There are often more children on the bus than there are seats so some are standing. The bus company isn’t a big operator and concentrates simply on keeping its small fleet going – passenger service isn’t at a premium. Unsurprisingly this has led to complaints about poor treatment of children.
The commission’s report is useful in highlighting the issue of school transport. I think it is spot on when it highlights the social, environmental and economic enormous savings that could accrue from improvements. It’s just that I’m not sure it has any answers.
When I flicked to the bit where it said how this was going to be paid for it says: “Acceptable fare levels will not generate all the required funding but given the clear safety and decongestion benefits, there is a strong case for a contribution to dedicated school transport services from the public purse.”
Yes, and...
A fuel duty rebate is one, or “local authorities should consider new supplementary funding opportunities such as local business sponsorship.”
Which seems a cop-out.
A political decision needs to be made that proper funding of school transport by the local authority is a priority and a larger proportion of your council tax will go towards it. We’ll all pay towards the cost but we’ll all reap the benefits. Let's not go cap in hand for business funding which could be cut when economic times are tough.
Meanwhile First Group’s PR campaign roles on. Expect to see a yellow bus picture in a newspaper near you soon.
The American-style yellow school bus has been pictured endlessly in print and online along with the same article about them coming to Britain soon.
The BBC in particular cannot get enough of these cute-looking buses despite the fact that they are used by approximately 1% of all school children in the UK.
It’s been a remarkable PR coup for transport giant First Group whose logo subtly adorns these buses.
But now, there is actually a story to write about and it comes from the Yellow School Bus Commission.
It sounds like something from Sesame Street, but is chaired by former Home Secretary David Blunkett with cross-party membership and was “established to examine and quantify the environmental, social, educational, time and cost benefits of a nationwide network of dedicated home to school transport.”
This commission seems to be driven (forgive the pun) by the bus industry with actual passengers not represented. However it has several local authority transport people on board (these puns just write themselves).
And the commission has produced a report which says a nationwide network of, wait for it, yellow school buses, would offer primary and secondary school pupils by giving them a safe journey to school, reducing congestion, reducing pollution and improving attendance times.
It says that the number of children being driven to school has doubled in the last 20 years. I’m sure we can all think of reasons why this has happened and agree that it is “not a good thing”.
Many schools have transport plans which they draft with help from their local authority.
However the school transport issue in my village is not lack of buses but lack of money.
There are three secondary schools which children can attend and all are far enough away to warrant free travel. However only one school is designated for receiving a travel subsidy so the children attending the other two have to pay their own bus fare. The county council is not obliged to extend its free travel policy and, for cash reasons, will not make an exception.
This term fares on schools services without subsidy haves gone up for the second year running and, again, at far more than inflation. There are often more children on the bus than there are seats so some are standing. The bus company isn’t a big operator and concentrates simply on keeping its small fleet going – passenger service isn’t at a premium. Unsurprisingly this has led to complaints about poor treatment of children.
The commission’s report is useful in highlighting the issue of school transport. I think it is spot on when it highlights the social, environmental and economic enormous savings that could accrue from improvements. It’s just that I’m not sure it has any answers.
When I flicked to the bit where it said how this was going to be paid for it says: “Acceptable fare levels will not generate all the required funding but given the clear safety and decongestion benefits, there is a strong case for a contribution to dedicated school transport services from the public purse.”
Yes, and...
A fuel duty rebate is one, or “local authorities should consider new supplementary funding opportunities such as local business sponsorship.”
Which seems a cop-out.
A political decision needs to be made that proper funding of school transport by the local authority is a priority and a larger proportion of your council tax will go towards it. We’ll all pay towards the cost but we’ll all reap the benefits. Let's not go cap in hand for business funding which could be cut when economic times are tough.
Meanwhile First Group’s PR campaign roles on. Expect to see a yellow bus picture in a newspaper near you soon.
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