Routes with certain scheduled/special journeys

[busman]

Aug 26, 2020 12:06:54 GMT snowman said:

Around 250,000 school children use London's buses to get to and from school.
So, from 1 September until the end of October 2020 we're planning to add over 200 extra buses to the network

Routes with extra buses being provided:
20, 50, 89, 110, 116, 117, 119, 122, 130, 138, 142, 152, 153, 167, 181, 186, 187, 201, 203, 206, 215, 216, 223, 225, 226, 228, 232, 233, 234, 246, 251, 255, 265, 269, 272, 273, 275, 282, 287, 289, 290, 293, 294, 298, 300, 309, 313, 314, 315, 317, 322, 323, 324, 325, 331, 336, 339, 346, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 359, 360, 362, 367, 379, 372, 376, 377, 380, 382, 383, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 401, 405, 406, 407, 411, 412, 413, 418, 428, 434, 444, 455, 462, 463, 465, 470, 481, 484, 487, 491, 492, 493, 496, 498, 499, 533, A10, B11, B12, B13, B14, B15, B16, E5, E7, E10, E11, G1, H17, H18, H20, H25, H26, H28, K1, K4, K5, P5, P12, P13, R1, R2, R3, R4, R6, R7, R8, R68, S3, S4, U3, W5, W9, W16 and X26.
Plus school routes 601, 602, 603, 608, 612, 613, 616, 617, 624, 626, 627, 628, 629, 631, 632, 635, 638, 640, 642, 643, 646, 652, 653, 655, 656, 657, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, 667, 669, 671, 674, 675, 677, 678, 679, 683, 684, 685, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690, 692, 696, 697, 698, 699

Routes with school priority buses running between 0730 and 0930:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 18, 21, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 44, 46, 47, 51, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 87, 92, 93, 95, 96, 97, 99, 102, 103, 108, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 118, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 140, 143, 144, 145, 147, 150, 151, 154, 155, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164. 165, 170, 172, 174, 176, 177, 180, 184, 185, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 204, 207, 212, 213, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 226, 227, 229, 231, 235, 236, 237, 244, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 256, 257, 258, 262, 263, 267, 270, 271, 276, 279, 283, 284, 285, 288, 296, 299, 301, 307, 312, 316, 319, 320, 321, 326, 329, 330, 332, 333, 337, 343, 344, 357, 358, 363, 364, 366, 371, 379, 380, 381, 391, 393, 410, 417, 419, 422, 425, 427, 428, 430, 432, 433, 440, 450, 452, 453, 466, 468, 469, 472, 473, 483, 484, 486, 490, 607, B12, C10, C11, D6, E1, E2, E6, E8, E9, EL2, EL3, H10, H19, H22, H37, H91, H98, K2, K3, P4, R11, R70, S1, U1, U2, U4, U5, W3, W4, W6, W7, W8, W11, W13, W15 and W19.

Routes with school priority buses running between 1430 and 1630:
25, 33, 39, 46, 51, 54, 58, 61, 65, 80, 81, 92, 93, 95, 96, 110, 111, 112, 114, 120, 123, 124, 125, 126, 131, 132, 140, 143, 144, 147, 152, 157, 162, 163, 164, 165, 170, 184, 190, 192, 193, 200, 208, 213, 217, 221, 227, 229, 234, 235, 237, 238, 244, 248, 256, 261, 267, 270, 276, 279, 281, 284, 296, 316, 320, 326, 358, 364, 366, 371, 410, 419, 427, 433, 440, 444, 450, 469, 490, 607, C11, D6, E6, H10, H19, H22, H37, H98, K2, K3, P4, R11, R70, S1, U1, U2, W3, W4, W6, W8, W13, W16 and W19.

Note the extra buses are also on size restricted routes, eg K1, K4, K5 (not sure where these are coming from unless the borrowed buses are getting an extension)

Good luck with enforcing this guys and girls. My thoughts and prayers are with every driver. My local route runs every 15 minutes operated with small single deckers. From next week commuters will see that service reduced to one bus every 30 minutes with reduced capacity. There are going to be some very frustrated passengers across London. I wouldn’t want to be that driver stopping commuters heading to Canning Town to catch the tube from boarding my school child only bus. The scenes when they hear “There’s another bus 10 minutes behind me”.

Do drivers have discretion to let non-school children onto the school services? For example, I can’t imagine many school kids boarding a 25 at City Thameslink.

[nathanw]

Hi all, not sure if this is on topic but I'm confused as to wether or not I'm actually allowed to use the school child only buses - or if drivers will stop for me. I'm 17 and go to sixth form and spend almost an hour on a 314 (which is apparently having extras) to get there so rely on the bus to get there. I wear a suit rather than school uniform so am not easily identifiable as a school child so I'm worried every other bus will sail past. Any clarification on what garages have advised drivers to do would be appreciated 😃

[​galwhv69]

Aug 27, 2020 9:31:21 GMT nathanw said:

Hi all, not sure if this is on topic but I'm confused as to wether or not I'm actually allowed to use the school child only buses - or if drivers will stop for me. I'm 17 and go to sixth form and spend almost an hour on a 314 (which is apparently having extras) to get there so rely on the bus to get there. I wear a suit rather than school uniform so am not easily identifiable as a school child so I'm worried every other bus will sail past. Any clarification on what garages have advised drivers to do would be appreciated 😃

Apparently it's schoolkids, young people and teachers so you should be alright. (As long as the bus stops)

[LJ17THF]

Aug 27, 2020 9:31:21 GMT nathanw said:

Hi all, not sure if this is on topic but I'm confused as to wether or not I'm actually allowed to use the school child only buses - or if drivers will stop for me. I'm 17 and go to sixth form and spend almost an hour on a 314 (which is apparently having extras) to get there so rely on the bus to get there. I wear a suit rather than school uniform so am not easily identifiable as a school child so I'm worried every other bus will sail past. Any clarification on what garages have advised drivers to do would be appreciated 😃

It's fine if you ask , but I'm not sure if the drivers will be able to distinguish if you are going to school or just a regular passenger - it might be quite hard to see people at a distance. Depending if you have something like a backpack, they might let you in. If they don't let you in, you can file a complaint to TfL saying that you weren't let in, I don't think they took Sixth Form students into account while getting ideas on how to get students back into school . Besides, if the extra buses do go past, then you should be able to go on the regular bus, which, unlike the extra buses, have social distancing .

Anyway, I hope when school starts, you'll get on the bus without many issues . May I recommend that you leave early, can't really trust TfL with the way the poorly planned this out.

[M1104]

Aug 26, 2020 17:26:29 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

I'm surprised that the 37 isn't getting any extras or the every second bus for kids thing

Could be that some schools along route may provide their own transport involving contract with coaches. The girls school on Half Moon Lane appeared to be the case when i used to drive the 37, many moons ago mind you.

[​galwhv69]

Aug 27, 2020 11:48:40 GMT M1104 said:

Aug 26, 2020 17:26:29 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

I'm surprised that the 37 isn't getting any extras or the every second bus for kids thing

Could be that some schools along route may provide their own transport involving contract with coaches. The girls school on Half Moon Lane appeared to be the case when i used to drive the 37, many moons ago mind you.

I know that Dulwich College provides a handful of services from the Putney direction (even one that starts at Green Man) however the 37 is still packed with commuters and schoolkids from a large variety of schools (even some Dulwich College kids use the 37 over the private bus)

[M1104]

What if a parent/guardian is going to or from school with the child (eg. to see the teacher) and the 'school kids only' bus arrives? What would the bus driver 'officially' have to do in that situation?

[​galwhv69]

Aug 27, 2020 11:54:38 GMT M1104 said:

What if a parent/guardian is going to or from school with the child (eg. to see the teacher) and the 'school kids only' bus arrives? What would the bus driver 'officially' have to do in that situation?

That's one of my main worries, thinking of collecting my siblings myself for the first few days (as I start later) so this doesn't happen

[vjaska]

Aug 27, 2020 11:50:43 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

Aug 27, 2020 11:48:40 GMT M1104 said:

Could be that some schools along route may provide their own transport involving contract with coaches. The girls school on Half Moon Lane appeared to be the case when i used to drive the 37, many moons ago mind you.

I know that Dulwich College provides a handful of services from the Putney direction (even one that starts at Green Man) however the 37 is still packed with commuters and schoolkids from a large variety of schools (even some Dulwich College kids use the 37 over the private bus)

Two that surprised me for not being included are the 196 & 417 given the former has to deal with St Martins at Tulse Hill, St Joseph's College at Upper Norwood and Harris at Norwood Junction along with other various schools whilst the latter passes lots of schools like King's Avenue primary, Dunraven & BTG along Leigham Court Road, St Joseph's, Norwood High & Virgo along Crown Dale & Central Hill - it's bad enough on the 417 during normal times.

[greg]

Though some routes are not listed, are operators allowed to have some extra off timetable journeys on some routes? I am so hopeless and annoyed there are none coming to the 31, like I don’t think TFL think it through, its 10 minute frequency and no available Tube links from Camden/Chalk Farm to Swiss Cottage/Kilburn Park and that it runs alone.

The 168 which is also very busy right now, I think W have been putting spare LTs on the route as everytime I come to Camden, they come in pairs of 2, which is great!

[ak121]

Aug 27, 2020 9:31:21 GMT nathanw said:

Hi all, not sure if this is on topic but I'm confused as to wether or not I'm actually allowed to use the school child only buses - or if drivers will stop for me. I'm 17 and go to sixth form and spend almost an hour on a 314 (which is apparently having extras) to get there so rely on the bus to get there. I wear a suit rather than school uniform so am not easily identifiable as a school child so I'm worried every other bus will sail past. Any clarification on what garages have advised drivers to do would be appreciated 😃

I also recommend having something like a school ID badge or card with you if you need to prove to a bus driver that you are indeed in education and that you are eligible to board the school extra buses.

[COBO]

I wish that school children only buses came about years ago. I know that there is such things schools routes and there routes that have school journeys but anybody can board. If there were school children only buses then that would take the pressure of the main routes.

[cleaner]

Aug 28, 2020 1:47:09 GMT COBO said:

I wish that school children only buses came about years ago. I know that there is such things schools routes and there routes that have school journeys but anybody can board. If there were school children only buses then that would take the pressure of the main routes.

Soo true

[vjaska]

Aug 28, 2020 1:47:09 GMT COBO said:

I wish that school children only buses came about years ago. I know that there is such things schools routes and there routes that have school journeys but anybody can board. If there were school children only buses then that would take the pressure of the main routes.

These do exist and have done so for years - private school buses run across London every schoolday. For example, International Coachlines of Thornton Heath used to run a school route to Putney via Brixton Water Lane using ex Euro II Stagecoach Tridents. There is another one that runs through Brixton that used to use a all over red ex Transdev VLE/VE under Travelin & then I think it was replaced by a MMC. Bothj routes could even be connected

[Paul]

Aug 27, 2020 12:30:26 GMT ​galwhv69 said:

Aug 27, 2020 11:54:38 GMT M1104 said:

What if a parent/guardian is going to or from school with the child (eg. to see the teacher) and the 'school kids only' bus arrives? What would the bus driver 'officially' have to do in that situation?

That's one of my main worries, thinking of collecting my siblings myself for the first few days (as I start later) so this doesn't happen

My understanding is that parents/guardians travelling with a child to school are permitted to travel on a ‘school service.’ Additionally, passengers in wheelchairs may travel on any service