The direct bus is back on the schedule starting next month. My daughter and her friends will finally have a safe way to get to school without the stress of constant transfers in town. Thank you for pushing for this change until the transit authority finally listened.
November 29, 2015
Final supporters
Our children, some as young as 11 and just starting secondary school using public transport on their own for the first time, are being let down by an unreliable bus service in the mornings.
As you are aware the journey to Oakwood Park from Staplehurst and other villages on the No. 5 Arriva bus route involves the children changing buses in Maidstone town centre to complete their journey to the school.
Often the bus is overcrowded and late. On arriving in town for the connecting buses, the children are left waiting too long to find one with space on to complete the journey.
This petition is to request the reinstatement of the direct bus that used to run to Oakwood Park in the morning before major road works in Maidstone forced a change to the service, believed to be a temporary measure. There is also a need for it to loop round to serve the Maidstone Grammar School for Girls as their students on the No. 5 route are experiencing the same problems.
The road works have long since been completed and there is a significant increase in the number of children using the No. 5 service to get to Oakwood Park. It makes sense for the full bus to carry on directly to Oakwood Park instead of dropping the children in the town centre, where they are facing delays in finding connecting buses, causing unnecessary extended journey times and worries about being late for school. Our children begin their journeys at 7am (some even earlier) and deserve a hassle free commute to school each morning.
Please add your name to the petition and share. It will be even more important with the onset of the cold winter months and will help to ensure your child gets to school as dry and warm as possible.
Thank you.
EDIT: Arriva have now decided, due to the unreliability of the early No. 5, that the bus should start at Cranbrook at 6:30am meaning a ridiculously early start to the school day for many children! It is now even more important to sign the petition and get this bus route sorted out.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
November 3, 2015
September 25, 2015
I have been reading the stories some of you shared about your children waiting in the cold and arriving late to school because of these missed connections. It confirms that this is not just an inconvenience for my own child but a broad issue affecting families across the entire route. I am currently compiling these experiences to present directly to Arriva so they can see the human cost of these transit gaps.
Reached 100 supporters
September 21, 2015
September 20, 2015
Watching the numbers climb reminds me of how stressful these mornings are for my own child. We have almost reached one hundred signatures but we need a final push to force the council to recognize our struggle. Please post the link to your social media pages right now so more families can see how vital this direct route is.
98 Comments
Reinstate the direct bus to OPGS it solves all of this nonsense. With the proposed new timetable my (only just 11 year old) son will be catching the bus at 6.47am and not returning until nearly 5pm please don't let this happen.
my daughter often chooses to walk for nearly an hour because she is finding the full buses so worrying. She is only 11 and I'm not happy about her being left by the roadside on her own because a full bus goes past her. It's going to get darker soon. Please sort the provision on these routes out
I have 2 children - 1 at Oakwood Park & the other at MGGS. We live in Loose and cannot get on direct buses as they are full before reaching Loose. To get on another bus means no connections in the town and late for school. We have to drive them to the Wheatsheaf to enable them to catch a direct bus from the Sutton Road .
Having paid double the fare for my sons travel card, we are very disappointed with the level of service from arriva including the cancellation on the number 5, which has added congestion and confusion to the already chaotic jounrney Fromm loose to Oakwood.
My daughter currently catches the number 5 to Maidstone , she is a Mggs student . The bus as it currently stands is always so late that they have to walk every day . There are no seats by the time she gets on in the morning . And to full on the way home , finishing school at 3:30 arriving home at 5:20 is unexceptionable!
This bus is vital for my daughter
The borough council and the bus company should be ashamed at providing so bad a service for our rural young people.
Share Petition
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The direct bus is back on the schedule starting next month. My daughter and her friends will finally have a safe way to get to school without the stress of constant transfers in town. Thank you for pushing for this change until the transit authority finally listened.
November 29, 2015
Final supporters
Our children, some as young as 11 and just starting secondary school using public transport on their own for the first time, are being let down by an unreliable bus service in the mornings.
As you are aware the journey to Oakwood Park from Staplehurst and other villages on the No. 5 Arriva bus route involves the children changing buses in Maidstone town centre to complete their journey to the school.
Often the bus is overcrowded and late. On arriving in town for the connecting buses, the children are left waiting too long to find one with space on to complete the journey.
This petition is to request the reinstatement of the direct bus that used to run to Oakwood Park in the morning before major road works in Maidstone forced a change to the service, believed to be a temporary measure. There is also a need for it to loop round to serve the Maidstone Grammar School for Girls as their students on the No. 5 route are experiencing the same problems.
The road works have long since been completed and there is a significant increase in the number of children using the No. 5 service to get to Oakwood Park. It makes sense for the full bus to carry on directly to Oakwood Park instead of dropping the children in the town centre, where they are facing delays in finding connecting buses, causing unnecessary extended journey times and worries about being late for school. Our children begin their journeys at 7am (some even earlier) and deserve a hassle free commute to school each morning.
Please add your name to the petition and share. It will be even more important with the onset of the cold winter months and will help to ensure your child gets to school as dry and warm as possible.
Thank you.
EDIT: Arriva have now decided, due to the unreliability of the early No. 5, that the bus should start at Cranbrook at 6:30am meaning a ridiculously early start to the school day for many children! It is now even more important to sign the petition and get this bus route sorted out.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
November 3, 2015
September 25, 2015
I have been reading the stories some of you shared about your children waiting in the cold and arriving late to school because of these missed connections. It confirms that this is not just an inconvenience for my own child but a broad issue affecting families across the entire route. I am currently compiling these experiences to present directly to Arriva so they can see the human cost of these transit gaps.
Reached 100 supporters
September 21, 2015
September 20, 2015
Watching the numbers climb reminds me of how stressful these mornings are for my own child. We have almost reached one hundred signatures but we need a final push to force the council to recognize our struggle. Please post the link to your social media pages right now so more families can see how vital this direct route is.
98 Comments
Please reinstate the direct bus to OPGS and MGGS - it would solve so many problems. Your service is diabolical as it is, taking this particular service off has made everything in the town with ALL Maidstone "bus catching" school children (not just these two schools) so much worse with the knock on effect.
Reinstate the direct bus to OPGS it solves all of this nonsense. With the proposed new timetable my (only just 11 year old) son will be catching the bus at 6.47am and not returning until nearly 5pm please don't let this happen.
my daughter often chooses to walk for nearly an hour because she is finding the full buses so worrying. She is only 11 and I'm not happy about her being left by the roadside on her own because a full bus goes past her. It's going to get darker soon. Please sort the provision on these routes out
I have 2 children - 1 at Oakwood Park & the other at MGGS. We live in Loose and cannot get on direct buses as they are full before reaching Loose. To get on another bus means no connections in the town and late for school. We have to drive them to the Wheatsheaf to enable them to catch a direct bus from the Sutton Road .
Having paid double the fare for my sons travel card, we are very disappointed with the level of service from arriva including the cancellation on the number 5, which has added congestion and confusion to the already chaotic jounrney Fromm loose to Oakwood.
My daughter currently catches the number 5 to Maidstone , she is a Mggs student . The bus as it currently stands is always so late that they have to walk every day . There are no seats by the time she gets on in the morning . And to full on the way home , finishing school at 3:30 arriving home at 5:20 is unexceptionable!
This bus is vital for my daughter
The borough council and the bus company should be ashamed at providing so bad a service for our rural young people.
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Please reinstate the direct bus to OPGS and MGGS - it would solve so many problems. Your service is diabolical as it is, taking this particular service off has made everything in the town with ALL Maidstone "bus catching" school children (not just these two schools) so much worse with the knock on effect.