Reinstate the No. 5 Direct Morning Bus to Oakwood Park, Maidstone
98 Comments
J
Jo Pow
10 years ago
Too many school children are affected by this for it to be ignored
J
Jason Wright
10 years ago
Shame on this company!
H
Helen Simmonds
10 years ago
My Daughter is in Year 8 at MGGS. She is really struggling with a difficult journey to school. Last term things got a lot worse when her route was suddenly changed from catching a bus home near her school to suddenly having to walk long distances. She is suffering from tendinitis and spent along time in cast. The extra walking is really hurting her. On top of that now her morning journey has been made a lot worse meaning she'll have to leave the house at 6.35am! We are at our wits end. Please help these young people.
V
Vanessa Knight
10 years ago
Reinstate the no 5 direct bus to Oakwood Park. Our kids don't need an earlier bus, just a direct one.
R
Rachel Callister
10 years ago
young secondary school children & their parents need to have the bus running directly to school to ensure their own safety & not to be left to wonder the town or be waiting for overcrowded buses.
J
Jo Loveridge
10 years ago
my daughter has just started at MGGS - we live in cranbrook so she has to navigate several buses to get to school. Stupidly none of the buses connect well (ie the 12 and the 59 leave the wheatsheaf 4 mins before the 5 is scheduled to get there. How ridiculous as it would be a simple change to connect those children coming from the whole of that area towards the school's the other end of town!!
J
Jo Gibson
10 years ago
Can you please reinstate this - and let it start in Hawkhurst again too!
Y
Yvonne Davidson
10 years ago
The number 5 service is a travesty....
S
Sam Lay
· petition starter
10 years ago
Please reinstate the direct morning bus and give our children a break. It makes no sense to terminate the bus in town when there is great demand for the service to continue to the Oakwood Park schools and college.
Q
Quentin Haywood
10 years ago
No5 Oakwood bus. As there is a high intake of year 7's from the Staplehurst and Cranbrook area this year, by the time the No5 reaches Staplehurst at 7.00am it is already full and my son has to stand from Staplehurst into Maidstone, then cath another bus from Maidstone Town Centre up to Oakwood Park. Door to door with the changes in Maidstone this takes my son 75 minutes from Staplehurst to get to school & this can take longer if the traffic is bad. If a No5 bus to Oakwood was run, ideally as an additional service like the No5 bus to Invicta Grammar school in Maidstone, this would help avoid overcrowding on the bus & reduce the journey time for the pupils. The situation will get worse unless action is taken as I would imagine this same problem will arise in future years too.
A
Anna nerilli
10 years ago
If there is a good demand for this bus why cancel the service?
L
Lynne Turner-Graves
10 years ago
We certainly need an end to delayed services and school lateness.
K
Kate Edwards
10 years ago
Featured
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
A
Anna fleming
10 years ago
Stop making it so hard for our children to get to school and forcing more cars on to the road by cutting and rerouting services
J
Jason Bardell
10 years ago
Please reinstate the dedicated No5 bus to Oakwood in the mornings. At present our children are having to get off the bus in Maidstone and join the masses trying to get a bus out of Maidstone again to Oakwood. They are competing with other children from other schools for seats and it sounds that they are unable to get onto the first or second available bus out of town due to the buses being full. It would make sense for the children from Oakwood and other schools going in that direction to stay on a dedicated bus. Its frustrating to hear the 'only just got into school' on time - after leaving home 1 hr and 30 mins ago, for a normal 30 minute drive? Not to mention the 'late again' messages too. A dedicated bus to Oakwood is a no brainer, why was it stopped anyway? Thanks for reading my rant :-)
S
Sharon Godsmark
10 years ago
Featured
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 .
C
Claire Allmett
11 years ago
Featured
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.
M
Maggie Martin
11 years ago
My understanding from my sons who both attend Oakwood Park is that this bus is full by the time it gets to the Stilebridge with pupils for either Oakwood, St. Simon's Stock or MGGS. It would make a huge amount of sense for the bus to continue to Oakwood and then onto MGGS since the majority of the bus users are for those two schools. As stated in the petition this bys used to run to Oakwood but was stopped when major roadworks were planned for the town centre. A the time we were led to believe it was temporary yet my year 9 son has never experienced the direct bus, which means this was over two years ago. These children do a very long day given the hassles returning home as well (longer than a lot of adults). Their physical and mental well being should be considered when designing bus schedules. On a practical front it makes no sense for them to have to get off and then scramble for other bus places which with the new term have been hard to find. Surely its more logical to continue the bus to Tonbridge Rd and then round to MGGS?
G
Georgina Roberts
11 years ago
We have two boys at Oakwood and they are only just getting to school on time
Once the winter arrives it can only mean delays, of one sort or another.
A
Anonymous
11 years ago
It would make our children's journey so much less stressful. It really does not make sense to have a bus that takes them from Oakwood all the way home but not offer this service on the way in to Maidstone in the morning.
Too many school children are affected by this for it to be ignored
Shame on this company!
My Daughter is in Year 8 at MGGS. She is really struggling with a difficult journey to school. Last term things got a lot worse when her route was suddenly changed from catching a bus home near her school to suddenly having to walk long distances. She is suffering from tendinitis and spent along time in cast. The extra walking is really hurting her. On top of that now her morning journey has been made a lot worse meaning she'll have to leave the house at 6.35am! We are at our wits end. Please help these young people.
Reinstate the no 5 direct bus to Oakwood Park. Our kids don't need an earlier bus, just a direct one.
young secondary school children & their parents need to have the bus running directly to school to ensure their own safety & not to be left to wonder the town or be waiting for overcrowded buses.
my daughter has just started at MGGS - we live in cranbrook so she has to navigate several buses to get to school. Stupidly none of the buses connect well (ie the 12 and the 59 leave the wheatsheaf 4 mins before the 5 is scheduled to get there. How ridiculous as it would be a simple change to connect those children coming from the whole of that area towards the school's the other end of town!!
Can you please reinstate this - and let it start in Hawkhurst again too!
The number 5 service is a travesty....
Please reinstate the direct morning bus and give our children a break. It makes no sense to terminate the bus in town when there is great demand for the service to continue to the Oakwood Park schools and college.
No5 Oakwood bus. As there is a high intake of year 7's from the Staplehurst and Cranbrook area this year, by the time the No5 reaches Staplehurst at 7.00am it is already full and my son has to stand from Staplehurst into Maidstone, then cath another bus from Maidstone Town Centre up to Oakwood Park. Door to door with the changes in Maidstone this takes my son 75 minutes from Staplehurst to get to school & this can take longer if the traffic is bad. If a No5 bus to Oakwood was run, ideally as an additional service like the No5 bus to Invicta Grammar school in Maidstone, this would help avoid overcrowding on the bus & reduce the journey time for the pupils. The situation will get worse unless action is taken as I would imagine this same problem will arise in future years too.
If there is a good demand for this bus why cancel the service?
We certainly need an end to delayed services and school lateness.
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
Stop making it so hard for our children to get to school and forcing more cars on to the road by cutting and rerouting services
Please reinstate the dedicated No5 bus to Oakwood in the mornings. At present our children are having to get off the bus in Maidstone and join the masses trying to get a bus out of Maidstone again to Oakwood. They are competing with other children from other schools for seats and it sounds that they are unable to get onto the first or second available bus out of town due to the buses being full. It would make sense for the children from Oakwood and other schools going in that direction to stay on a dedicated bus. Its frustrating to hear the 'only just got into school' on time - after leaving home 1 hr and 30 mins ago, for a normal 30 minute drive? Not to mention the 'late again' messages too. A dedicated bus to Oakwood is a no brainer, why was it stopped anyway? Thanks for reading my rant :-)
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 understanding from my sons who both attend Oakwood Park is that this bus is full by the time it gets to the Stilebridge with pupils for either Oakwood, St. Simon's Stock or MGGS. It would make a huge amount of sense for the bus to continue to Oakwood and then onto MGGS since the majority of the bus users are for those two schools. As stated in the petition this bys used to run to Oakwood but was stopped when major roadworks were planned for the town centre. A the time we were led to believe it was temporary yet my year 9 son has never experienced the direct bus, which means this was over two years ago. These children do a very long day given the hassles returning home as well (longer than a lot of adults). Their physical and mental well being should be considered when designing bus schedules. On a practical front it makes no sense for them to have to get off and then scramble for other bus places which with the new term have been hard to find. Surely its more logical to continue the bus to Tonbridge Rd and then round to MGGS?
We have two boys at Oakwood and they are only just getting to school on time Once the winter arrives it can only mean delays, of one sort or another.
It would make our children's journey so much less stressful. It really does not make sense to have a bus that takes them from Oakwood all the way home but not offer this service on the way in to Maidstone in the morning.