Yellow buses s-miles better

The school run is more than a quarter of a million miles shorter in Greater Manchester this year thanks to 41 yellow school buses.

And anti-social behaviour incidents are down by more than 70 per cent at schools where they have been introduced — including in Oldham.

Some schools who use the buses even say that attendance has improved because pupils are more willing to use the bus to school because there is no bullying.

Each bus has the same Criminal Records Bureau-checked and specially-trained driver every day, pupils sit in the same seat — with a seat belt every day and both the youngsters and their parents sign a code of practice to behave. The pupils have special yellow school bus passes with photo cards.

All the buses have up to seven CCTV cameras and a monitor on board, air conditioning, CD players, and public address systems.

There is room for two classes of pupils on the buses and schools and colleges hire them during the day for swimming baths and games trips, museums, galleries and school day trips.

Over all the fleet, there is an average take up per bus of 56 seats out of a total capacity of 67 — no standing is allowed. But 15 of the vehicles are fully subscribed and seven schools have waiting lists.

In a survey, a third of parents using the buses said they had switched from the car and officials have estimated that the fleet is saving 264,000 “car miles” a year,

Plans for more than a 100 yellow school buses were included in Greater Manchester’s Transport Innovation Fund bid which was abandoned after the massive “no” vote to congestion charging last year.

GMPTE’s financial experts are now looking at other ways to pay for more.