Parent's misery after bus route to school is cancelled at Maidenhead

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Maidenhead Advertiser:

A desperate mum says she is considering selling her home after a cancelled bus service made it difficult for her daughter to get to school.

Students who live in Maidenhead but study in Marlow have been left in the lurch after the Carousel 617 service was stopped this week.

Sadie King, 45, of Cranbrook Drive, said her daughter Yasmin, 12, now has to walk more than a mile to Furze Platt station to catch a train. Yasmin, in her first year at Sir William Borlase's School in Marlow, has been left with no alternative as the news was dropped on them only a few weeks ago.

"If I had known this would happen before I wouldn't have applied to Borlase's," said Sadie, who is now looking to move to central Maidenhead or Marlow.

Martin Isles, deputy head at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School, said it had endeavoured to provide alternative transport arrangements and car pool options for parents.

Steve Burns, one of the directors of Carousel Buses, said: "The service is unprofitable and we can no longer afford to run it at a loss. We have run the service for more than seven years and have done our best with it."

[Mookiemoo]

Wibble

I used to walk from Bootle to Orrel Park - exactly one mile

Then get the train from orrel park to maghull

Then walk from maghull station to deyes lane

A total of 1.8 miles of walking each way and a 20 minute train journey

[johoare]

My son walks a mile and a half to and from school each day and he is also 12.. And he's not the only one in Maidenhead...

As an aside.. I walked all the way from Maidenhead to Marlow and beyond (and back) on Sunday.. I wouldn't recommend that every day though 

[JayMac]

Sheesh. I moved (well Mum did) across town in Taunton after starting secondary school. 2 and a bit miles to school and that was often walked when my bike had a puncture. Mum tried for free bus travel, but we were about 300yds short of the catchment that would've allowed a bus pass. Still, it meant I got a decent bike for Christmas 1987!

[Ollie]

When I lived in Polegate I walked to school in Willingdon - according to Google it's 1.3 miles.

If I was lazy I'd get the bus but I had to pay for it.

[paul7575]

Misery?

Student = 12 year old?

WTF?

Paul

[bobm]

I used to walk half a mile then catch two buses before walking a quarter of a mile up a steep hill. For part of the time it was when they were experimenting with double summer time and it was dark til nearly 9am in the winter.

I must admit I did on occasion get one bus and then a train from Reading to Reading West for the princely sum of 3d child single. Or it might have been 3p as I was at that school both pre and post decimilisation in 1971.

[Tim]

I walked almost 2 miles to school each way.  There was abus, but as my walking route was cross-crountry the bus was no quicker (and smoke-filled) so I only caught it once.

Bottom line is that the child either has a reasonable walk or if the distance is greater than 3 miles, the council will stump up for some kind of transport, taxi or whatever.

I don;t however, like the fact the fact that bus operators can change their timetables with almost no notice.

[johoare]

I almost forgot to mention my 4 mile bike ride (and back) to school every day once I was at senior school..

[devon_metro]

I used to cycle to school every day, 5 miles there and back, I survived!