Surrey taken for a ride by Bus companies (Reigate Liberal Democrats)

Reigate Liberal Democrats <info@reigatelibdems.org.uk>

Surrey taken for a ride by Bus companies

June 21, 2010 10:20 PM

School Bus Rip Off

This week, I attended the consultation meeting for the School Special Bus review. The Council are looking for savings in all areas that they fund. Surrey County Council Officers presented their case for cutting some services however there were some serious and obvious flaws and omissions in their presentation.

Surrey County Council (SCC) told us why they have to subsidise the bus companies operations. 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 journey. 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.

Some other shocking details were revealed during the meeting. It was pointed out SCC still subsidise buses to schools outside Surrey borders to the tune of £150,000. 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 piecemeal fashion they are throwing away the opportunity to create a service which is fair and cost effective.

Jane Kulka

Reigate Lib Dems Parliamentary Spokesperson

Earlsbrook Road, Redhill