WHY KENT FREEDOM PASS FOR MEDWAY
WANT MEDWAY TO JOIN THE
KENT FREEDOM PASS SCHEME
Travel costs for children living in Medway*, are amongst
the highest in Kent.
The prices of bus passes in Medway are:
(Medway Inner Zone)
£17 per week, £50 per month**, or £500 per year,
(Medway Zone)
£22 per week, £72 per month**, or £720 per year,
(*Arriva Multi-Journey Saver Tickets in the South East)
(**prices reduced slightly if bought online)
compared with: £100 per year for the rest of Kent,
who have the Kent Freedom Pass Scheme.
Children who live in the Medway Zone, but whose schools are located in the Medway Inner Zone HAVE to buy the more expensive Medway Zone Bus Pass, because they travel between the two zones.
The Medway bus prices quoted above are in fact, those paid by Adults using Arriva Buses in Medway; because Arriva Buses do not issue a “Child Bus Pass” that gives unlimited bus travel within either the Medway Inner Zone (mainly covering the town centre), or the “Medway Zone” (which covers both the Medway Inner Zone and the surrounding areas).
Arriva Buses do offer child passes; however they are more expensive than the adult passes, and restrict children’s travel to the particular bus(es)/route(s) they were calculated for; they cannot be used on any other bus(es); unlike the Adult Passes, which give unlimited travel in one or both Medway Zone(s)!
Is Medway Council seriously telling the parents/carers of children in Medway, children aged 11, 12, or even 15, who do not work or have any particular income, and who need to use bus(es) to travel to/from school, that it is perfectly acceptable for these children to pay exactly the same prices for their restricted bus passes, as those of working Adults who commute in Medway, and who pay less than the children of Medway for their unrestricted bus passes?
Does Medway Council think it is quite acceptable for a Medway child to pay £50 a month for a Bus Pass, simply to get to school?
(Incidentally, with Arriva, “one month” actually means “four weeks”, or “28 days”; so it is usually necessary for children to have to buy an extra weekly bus pass, and/or to pay daily on each bus, at the end of each month/term to make up the difference.)
For some children where the Medway Youth Pass (Formerly known as the Half-Price Bus Scheme) is a possible option, the “school” bus might leave their area as early as 7am in the morning!
(Click here for: (Arriva South-East Timetables & Maps).)
Does Medway Council really believe that it is quite acceptable for young children to be walking the streets of Medway at around 6.40am every morning, to ensure that they catch the (single “school”) bus at around 7am, simply to be able to make use of the Medway Youth Pass? A child boarding one of these buses at the beginning of its’ circuit might end that journey, nearly two hours later, at around 8.15am, and arrive at school, on time, at around 8.30am.
For the return journey, the child might arrive at the end of the circuit approximately 1½ hours, after leaving school; and then might possibly face another 20-minute walk to reach their home!
If the answer to the above question is “Yes”, then I suggest that Medway Council have seriously “lost the plot”; we are talking about:
children travelling to and from school in Medway,
not
paid, working adults, commuting to/from work!
* * *
MEDWAY IS THE ONLY COUNCIL IN KENT
THAT HAS NOT JOINED
THE KENT FREEDOM PASS SCHEME.
Because of this, we could now be faced with the ludicrous situation where children, who live in Medway, and who each pay over £50 per month to travel to and from school, might find themselves sitting next to their classmates, in the same classroom, who live outside Medway, travel much further, but pay only £100 a year for their travel passes!
DOES MEDWAY COUNCIL REALLY THINK THAT THIS IS ACCEPTABLE?