On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:08:51 +0100, Mark Bestley wrote:
Recliner wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:57:45 +0200, Jarle Hammen Knudsen
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 09:52:14 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK)

Apart from where they aren't. There are several school bus services
around me (in North London) which use coaches.

On 19/09/2017 14:36, David Walters wrote:
On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:08:51 +0100, Mark Bestley wrote:
Recliner wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:57:45 +0200, Jarle Hammen Knudsen
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 09:52:14 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK)

Apart from where they aren't. There are several school bus services
around me (in North London) which use coaches.


I think that just serves to reinforce the point that "school bus" does
not have anything like as precise meaning (and iconic status) as it has
in the USA. And I find that very easy to understand given the way the
US school bus was so widespread - IIRC available for any child more than
a mile from school, even in cities.

And from my list of useless things I remember, John Prescott (when in
Government) sponsored a pilot in England of a US-style service - with
yellow buses imported from the USA.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

In message , at 13:08:51 on
Tue, 19 Sep 2017, Mark Bestley remarked:

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have.

Having a dedicated fleet of USA school buses is the only way to provide
the transport, because stage buses are very scarce.

And don't make the mistake of thinking they do only one return trip a
day - where I lived in the USA for a year the school buses did three
morning trips and three afternoon ones, and the school hours were
staggered to account for that - different times for Elementary, Middle
and High Schools.

In somewhat similar conditions out in the English countryside, school
buses tend to be private hire rent-a-wrecks which either spend the rest
of the day ferrying crop-pickers around, or simply sit at the depot
(well, the back of some farmyard which passes for a depot).

In slightly more urban areas they might be pressed into service doing
once-a-day OAP trips to the out-of-town supermarkets.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 12:28:48 on Tue, 19 Sep
2017, remarked:
Those US school buses look like they were designed in the 1940s to me. Is
there some reason they can't use a modern bus but have to use some archaic
throwbacks?

They are robust and reliable. Why is anything more luxurious required?
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 09:19:36 on Tue, 19
Sep 2017, Neil Williams remarked:
If a bus has a "number" from the local fare stage operator, I don't
see why not.
On the other hand, outside London they are often privately run by
other companies, with specific termly season tickets.

They are usually open to the public so BSOG can be claimed (typically a
cash fare is paid by a member of the public using one). Whether the
public would want to go within 100 miles of them is quite another
question.

Do you mean the red London ones, or outside London.

Having looked at numerous of the latter earlier, they are all "pupils
with season tickets only".
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:57:45 +0200, Jarle Hammen Knudsen
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 09:52:14 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

When we lived in Berkshire my sons went to school on a private
charter. Here in Somerset I think all the local secondary schools
run school buses which are usually (but not exclusively) hand me down
coaches provided by local coach companies and most don't appear in
public timetables. There is one route from a sixth form college
which does appear in the timetable and I phoned the operator once to
ask if it was open to use by non-pupils (by the time I wanted to get
on it would have dropped at least part of the load) and the person I
talked to didn't really know but guessed (!) I'd be OK. In the end I
used a different mode so I never found out!

The simple, but probably unsatisfactory, answer is "it varies". There
is no hard and fast rule.

On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 13:08:51 +0100, (Mark Bestley)
wrote:

Recliner wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:57:45 +0200, Jarle Hammen Knudsen
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 09:52:14 -0700 (PDT), Offramp
wrote:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have. Although that
does mean that some of ours are not very good buses.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the main reason for the yellow US
school bus - it has protected status on the road. It is illegal to
pass it when it stops, not just on your side of the road but on the
other side too. As far as I know, the rule does not apply to the
other carriage way of a divided highway (to use the US terminology).
I have driven many thousands of miles in the USA and have never seen
anyone defy that rule.. Its unfortunate spin off is that children
adopt an arrogant saunter across the road and do not learn respect for
traffic..

Guy Gorton

In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 13:08:51
on Tue, 19 Sep 2017, Mark Bestley remarked:

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

which is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have.

Having a dedicated fleet of USA school buses is the only way to
provide the transport, because stage buses are very scarce.

And don't make the mistake of thinking they do only one return trip a
day - where I lived in the USA for a year the school buses did three
morning trips and three afternoon ones, and the school hours were
staggered to account for that - different times for Elementary,
Middle and High Schools.

In somewhat similar conditions out in the English countryside, school
buses tend to be private hire rent-a-wrecks which either spend the
rest of the day ferrying crop-pickers around, or simply sit at the
depot (well, the back of some farmyard which passes for a depot).

In slightly more urban areas they might be pressed into service doing
once-a-day OAP trips to the out-of-town supermarkets.

Most of the subsidised routes in Cambridge only run during school hours so
the buses can be used to bring kids in to school in the morning and take
them home again in the afternoon. Examples are the 114, 117, 196.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 11:53:00
on Tue, 19 Sep 2017, remarked:
In article , (Roland Perry)
wrote:

In message , at 13:08:51
on Tue, 19 Sep 2017, Mark Bestley remarked:

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

which is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have.

Having a dedicated fleet of USA school buses is the only way to
provide the transport, because stage buses are very scarce.

And don't make the mistake of thinking they do only one return trip a
day - where I lived in the USA for a year the school buses did three
morning trips and three afternoon ones, and the school hours were
staggered to account for that - different times for Elementary,
Middle and High Schools.

In somewhat similar conditions out in the English countryside, school
buses tend to be private hire rent-a-wrecks which either spend the
rest of the day ferrying crop-pickers around, or simply sit at the
depot (well, the back of some farmyard which passes for a depot).

In slightly more urban areas they might be pressed into service doing
once-a-day OAP trips to the out-of-town supermarkets.

Most of the subsidised routes in Cambridge only run during school hours so
the buses can be used to bring kids in to school in the morning and take
them home again in the afternoon. Examples are the 114, 117, 196.

That doesn't answer the question about whether the Big Green Bus
Company will take stage fares (rather than student seasons) on whatever
school runs they do before starting the 114 Cambridge to Addenbrookes
service[1] mid-morning.

[1] Is that really in need of subsidy?

--
Roland Perry

In message , at 17:42:38 on
Tue, 19 Sep 2017, Guy Gorton remarked:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have. Although that
does mean that some of ours are not very good buses.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the main reason for the yellow US
school bus - it has protected status on the road. It is illegal to
pass it when it stops,

I think that's "pass it when it has its 'Stop' sign out". Some local
jurisdictions might have "pass one ever, at all".

not just on your side of the road but on the
other side too. As far as I know, the rule does not apply to the
other carriage way of a divided highway (to use the US terminology).
I have driven many thousands of miles in the USA and have never seen
anyone defy that rule.. Its unfortunate spin off is that children
adopt an arrogant saunter across the road and do not learn respect for
traffic..

Some of them are driven like Fire Trucks too - "I believe I have
absolute priority, so get the f*ck out of my way". Especially when
exiting blind from school premises.
--
Roland Perry