Innovation in education transport: developments in West Yorkshire

Abstract

Education transport has been the Cinderella service of the bus industry. High peak costs and behaviour problems have consorted to make the carriage of school children a low priority for bus operators. On the other hand, education authorities have a duty to provide free transport to children that live further than 3 miles from secondary school and have extensively used contract services to meet their obligations. A two-tier system of service provision is evident in some areas. The West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority's overall vision for planning for the next 20 years is to secure, in partnership with others, the development of high-quality integrated public transport. The vision includes an ambitious programme of development for education transport provision and is based around the concept of dedicated education transport vehicles, with trained drivers and designated seats for children. The aim is to convert more school children to bus travel and so reduce car traffic on West Yorkshire roads associated with the school run and to create future citizens used to and comfortable with bus travel. The paper describes the background to education transport, the consultation exercise on the educational transport aspects of the vision, results from pilots and the initial results from the cost—benefit analysis of the vision and immediate operational issues being addressed. The consultation has included focus groups of parents and children, both users and non-users, and development of the concept through discussion with bus operators, education authorities and others responsible for transport coordination in district authorities. Pilots in Hebden Bridge and Ilkley are described and the operational issues, including capital and operating costs, and benefits are outlined.