Home to school transport – questions and answers (August/September 2021)

Dedicated school buses are available to help children and young people to get to school or college across South Yorkshire. School and college bus details are available at travelsouthyorkshire.com/school-buses

Families can find all the information they need about travelling to and from school or college safely at travelsouthyorkshire.com/schooltravel

School and college bus details are available at travelsouthyorkshire.com/school-buses

Dedicated school buses are available to help children and young people get to schools and colleges across South Yorkshire. Information about school buses, including timetables, passes, and how pupils can help everyone to travel safely, is available at travelsouthyorkshire.com/school-buses

With a Zoom Under 16 or Zoom Travel Pass, young people can pay a concessionary 80p fare per single journey by cash or contactless. Please try to have the exact change where possible if you’re paying by cash. These passes also entitle young people to pre-purchase value for money tickets, such as a GetAbout ticket, which may be better value for money if they need to travel regularly. No pass means full fare.

You can apply for a pass at travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/ticketsandpasses

A small number of dedicated school services don’t have the technology to scan passes for cashless payment. You can check at www.sytravelmaster.com/getabout-exclusions whether your school bus accepts GetAbout tickets.

We’re asking parents and schools to help us to educate children and young people about using school buses safely.

We’re strongly encouraging everyone to continue to wear a face covering on public transport unless they’re exempt, as well as encouraging people to regularly wash or sanitise their hands, and keep a safe distance on public transport and school buses, wherever possible. Face coverings are mandatory in South Yorkshire Interchanges.

You can read Government guidance about school operations and transport at www.gov.uk

If you have concerns about the suitability of home to school transport for medical reasons, you can contact your local authority education transport team.

SYMCA provides additional school bus services where local buses don’t meet council education requirements. Additional provision for individual pupils, over and above this, can’t be made available. If you have concerns about the suitability of home to school transport, you can contact your council’s education transport team.

We have encouraged schools, colleges, families and pupils to let us know if they have any issues, so we can shape future improvements. We will listen to concerns and, where possible, adjust services to make sure school transport meets the needs of our customers.

The Department for Education provided funding for additional home to school transport for the last academic year, to create extra capacity on the public transport network while Covid-19 travel guidance was in place. Most temporary dedicated school bus services that were introduced from September 2020 won’t continue.

Dedicated school buses that ran before the pandemic will mostly resume to help children and young people to get to school or college across South Yorkshire.

If your child currently has a valid MegaTravel or 16-18 Travel Pass which hasn’t expired, they can continue to use it. It will remain valid until its expiry date.