Surrey taken for a ride by Bus Companies

9.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd Jun 2010

School Bus Rip-off revealed at Meeting

Last week Jane Kulka, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Reigate, attended Surrey County Council's consultation meeting for the School Special Bus review. The county council are looking for savings in all areas that they fund. "SCC Officers presented their case for cutting some services, she said, "However there were some serious and obvious flaws and omissions in their presentation".

"SCC told us why they have to subsidise the bus companies operations" Jane continued. "It then became apparent that even though they did this, the bus companies charge higher than normal. In one example it became clear that an 85p child fare from Horley to Reigate before 9am became £1.50 for the child and an extra £2.00 subsidy from SCC making £3.50 total cost for the trip."

"We heard story after story from parents telling how their children have to travel on overcrowded buses, forcing some children to stand, which is very unsafe. We also heard that students are frequently not given tickets as receipts for their journeys. This means there is therefore no record kept of how many people are travelling on the bus or the amount of money that is collected. Contrary to what they say, there is no way that SCC could have any idea of how much money the bus companies are making out of these services."

Jane went on to say that some other shocking details were revealed during the meeting. "It was pointed out that SCC still subsidise buses to schools outside Surrey borders to the tune of £150,000", she said, "It also seems that the current SCC policy is discriminatory in terms of which children are given free transport."

"It was clear that SCC are just trying to save money. By analysing the school bus services in a piece meal fashion, they are throwing away the opportunity to create a service that is fair and cost effective."

Related Links:

School Specials Update (June 2010)

"School special" buses - an endangered species (May 2010)