Complaint About Local Bus Service

[iloveglee]

I wonder if anyone can give my advice as to who i complain to about our local bus service. we live in a village and this company is the only one available to us for travel to the local towns. the company is truly appalling in many ways. recently i have had an incident regarding one of my children who was forced to pay full fare even though she was carrying her school bus pass proving she is in education. (this company run the school bus service so they are aware of the kind of id provided to use them). the driver insisted this was not the correct id even though a poster on the bus wall was giving information about the fare payable for a child. also he did not give her a ticket which makes me very suspicious. a complaint to the company has got nowhere, they want the ticket (which she was not given) in order to investigate. i am concerned that there are going to be children left in town who don't have the full fare and are not allowed to get on the bus. is there some wider authority i can complain to, kind of like an ombudsman.

[bednobs]

are you sure your daughter didn't spend the money and tell you she was charged full on the bus?
i Think you can only use the companies complaints system

[EcclesCake]

I would imagine your local council let the contract and monitor the service provided.

[baza]

Try your local council , they may help as many rural area buses are subsidised.

[bednobs]

oh, never thought about that!" Also, could the school help?

[SlackAlice]

If it's a public bus service then your local council will point you in the right direction for complaints.

[Zacs-Master]

Traffic commissioners may be the first (and possibly best place). Hopefully you can find your local one here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traffic-commissioners

[iloveglee]

thank you for all the suggestions will pursue this.

[spudqueen]

A few years ago I had cause to complain about our local bus company, who also did the school bus service. I wrote a letter to the bus company and one to the local newspaper. Things did get altered, not immediately, but soon enough that I hope that I was one of the reasons why it got altered!

[Tuvok]

If you are in Scotland there is a body to complain to

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/public-transport/PVS/bus-complaints

[clivebeca]

http://bususerswales.org/complain.htm

Sorry I'm a bit parochial also! Have a look at the above link, it should give you some ideas.

[iloveglee]

evidently there is a local body to refer to and they were very helpful and pleasant to deal with. the upshot of all this is: school bus passes only provide evidence of age during the week, not weekend (when this journey took place.. I know .... don't ask - if you're at school during the week, presumably you are school age at the weekend as well. Nevertheless, in order to get the child fare you have to have a different type of pass. Or, there is a special kind of pass in this area that enables children under 16, or 18 in full time education to travel for 30p per journey (the usual child rate is 70p). This is a local thing though and may not apply everywhere. Why does this have to be so complicated. The general concensus of opinion from the local passenger transport authority was that the driver was being un-necessarily pedantic. Had she been 15 and looked 19 he may have had more grounds. He absolutely should have given her a ticket, serious offence not to. And on no occasion should a driver ever refuse to carry a child with insufficient money, the name and address should be taken and the matter dealt with by the parents. I know some children may give false details but even so ..... All the details were taken and this was passed officially to the bus company. Apparently they were unsurprised to have yet another complaint about this company - unfortunately no-one else will tender for the routes. I guess they are not big money spinners out in the country and in a generally poorer area. What happened to the days when public transport was a service. We should all move to Italy where it truly is a service both in terms of cost and availability of routes and frequency. No good either saying they can afford it, Italy is a much poorer country than we are, they just have their priorities right in some areas.