Stagecoach has issued guidance on school and college bus services in South Wales to support pupils and students safely returning to school and college in September. Working with the Welsh government and the Local Authorities in South East Wales, Stagecoach will be providing a further 50 extra dedicated buses for schools and colleges providing additional passenger capacity for pupils and students from 1 September.
Duplicate bus services will be clearly marked as school services on the destination screen. In most cases, there will be a ‘9’ in front of the service number and the destination so passengers can tell the difference between the normal service bus and the duplicate school bus.
Customers not travelling for school, college or work, are advised to try and avoid school and peak travel times and are encouraged to buy tickets in advance through the Stagecoach app, to use contactless payments, or exact fare only on Stagecoach buses in South Wales to reduce cash handling. All surplus change is being donated to the NHS Charities Together Appeal.
Nigel Winter, Managing Director for Stagecoach in South Wales, said: “We want to make sure that as pupils return to school and college and more people start to get to work, they can be confident about their journey with us. We’ve worked closely with the Welsh Government and local authorities to put a number of additional measures in place to make bus travel safe for our passengers.
“Stagecoach continues to meet Welsh Government and industry Covid-19 guidelines and has put processes in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing. The comprehensive regime includes daily deep cleans and hand sanistiser on all Stagecoach buses in South Wales. With everybody playing their part and following the rules on wearing face coverings and hygiene, people can continue to travel to work, school and college by bus safely and confidently.”
Nigel added: “A ‘busy bus’ feature is also now available on the app that uses extensive data and artificial intelligence to provide a traffic light indicator to help customers plan their journeys.”
