A Rochdale mum has expressed her anger at the transport network after her teenage daughter spent up to FOUR HOURS a day travelling to and from school by bus. Amanda Schofield said that 13-year-old Tess could sometimes spend as long as two hours travelling to school in the morning and two hours back, often with big stretches of time spent standing outside in the cold and dark.
The bus journey should take one hour, but requires Tess to take two buses which often don't coordinate, which sometimes leaves her waiting for 40 minutes between stops. And it only takes 15 minutes to drive by car.
She now feels she has no choice but to drive Tess to school each day, but is concerned about the impact this will have on the environment and her finances once the Clean Air Zone kicks in.
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“She [Tess] was exhausted when she was taking the bus,“ mum Amanda told the Manchester Evening News . “She’d get up at 6.30am to get the bus to get to school on time, and there were still occasions where she wasn’t getting to school before 9am.”
Under Greater Manchester's current system, most bus services are run by commercial operators, who decide routes, timetables and set fare levels. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) supports around 20 per cent of services, which run at times of day and in areas where there is a social need, including school bus services, but declined to comment on this particular issue.
Tess and Amanda live in the Steps Meadow area of Rochdale, and it would usually take around 15 minutes to drive Tess to school. It should take around one hour on the bus with no delays.
But Amanda is worried about the impact her driving is having on the environment, and says that she knows other parents share her concerns.
Amanda runs a small business with her boyfriend making bespoke fitted furniture. They own a transit van, which they use for work but also frequently pick Tess up from school in. Amanda is worried that when the Clean Air Zone is implemented, she will incur extra costs for picking her daughter up from school in this vehicle, even when she is not working.
“At the end of the day it’s not even about the extra charges, it’s about us wanting to be green. My child is so far away from school and the bus service is so bad in Greater Manchester that it just seems ridiculous,” she told the MEN.
“We don’t have the same support, the same infrastructure as they’ve got in either Birmingham or in London or in the centre of Manchester for children like Tess to be able to travel effectively.
“So of course we have to drive our children, I’m not the only one. Most people drive their children to school, and while the bus service is there, it shouldn’t take anywhere near two hours to do what is essentially a 15 or 20 minute journey.”
Getting the bus would also allow Tess to feel more independent, something that is incredibly important to her.
Amanda has had to call up Tess’ school and explain her lateness to avoid detention. She also said the unreliability of the buses was affecting her daughter’s social life, with her unable to stay for after-school clubs in the dark.
“I’d just like a better coordinated bus service,” she said. “The buses have to be reliable really, and school routes need to be prioritised.”
The Clean Air Zone was originally supposed to be implemented next month, but is now under review until July.
Buses in Greater Manchester are set to undergo sweeping reforms after a judge ruled that local authorities could take over the services, making the system more like that in London.
The goal is to create a 'Bee Network' pioneered by mayor Andy Burnham, linking up all the different elements of the region's public transportation, including both buses and trams.
The plan hopes to introduce 70 new bus routes operating on a ten-minute service. It also promises to create a ‘minimum “turn up and go” frequency’ that would be at least every 10 minutes during the day, Monday to Saturday, “to form a ‘London-style network’.”
TfGM declined to comment directly, but did provide some background information. A spokesperson said: "Under the current system, most bus services are run by commercial operators, who decide routes, timetables and set fare levels, with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) supporting around 20 per cent of services, which run at times of day and in areas where there is a social need, including school bus services.
As part of the Bee Network – Greater Manchester’s vision for a more integrated, accessible, and easier to use ‘London-style’ transport network – work is underway to bring buses under local control, and deliver improvements across our networks, including a core focus on better active travel, bus routes and services."
