Bus takes pupils to wrong school
ANUMBER of pupils were left stranded after a Rossendale bus took them to the wrong school.
Bus bosses have apologised after the Rosso Bus 8 service carrying pupils to The Valley Leadership Academy in Bacup ended up travelling along a different route on Tuesday, January 7, ending in Todmorden.
In recent months, there has been changes made to some Transdev Rosso services, with the company initially scrapping the number 8 route but later reintroducing a new service 8 which merged parts of existing Services 7 and 8 to maintain a service between Burnley and Bacup, and Bacup and Todmorden.
The Monday to Saturday daytime service was altered, meaning it now operates generally every two hours between Burnley, Bacup and Todmorden via Towneley, Weir, Bacup Pennine Road and Sharneyford.
Staff at The Valley Leadership Academy were forced to pick up their pupils and bring them back to school after the bus left them stranded at Todmorden High School, with reports of around 50 pupils affected.
An extended morning and afternoon school-day only journey was introduced to maintain services from Burnley, Weir and Bacup to The Valley Leadership Academy.
One parent, Sharon, said she was worried sick after her 14-year-old son phoned her.
Sharon said: “Up to 50 Valley Academy pupils have been taken to Todmorden High by mistake because of the constant bus timetable changes.
“They [were] stranded awaiting staff from school to pick them up.
“My son phoned me from Todmorden.
“The last of the children were picked up in a minibus but it’s absolutely ridiculous to leave all of them children stranded.
“The school are blaming the bus company.
“I’ve had no correspondence whatsoever from the school. There wasn’t anyone answering the phones at school when I first tried. Parents were getting information from
Facebook mainly.
“I was worried sick. The kids were being taken miles out of the way and dropped in a place they didn’t know.
“I’ve even just read on the Valley Academy Facebook page that some of the kids were telling the driver he was going the wrong way, only to be shouted at to sit down.
“Rosso buses have cancelled and changed their services so much between Bacup, Burnley and Todmorden that even the drivers don’t know where they are going now.”
The Valley Leadership Academy said they were aware of the incident and immediately arranged for the children to be picked up and brought back to school.
A spokesperson for the school said: “We are aware of an incident on Tuesday morning where some of our pupils who were travelling to school using a publicly-run bus service were taken to the wrong destination.
“The safety of our pupils is paramount and once we were made aware of the situation we immediately arranged for affected pupils to be transported back to school. All pupils have been accounted for and are safe and well.
“The parents of all pupils at the school have been made aware of the incident.
“The bus company has assured us that this was an isolated incident.”
Phil Harris, service delivery manager for Rosso, said: “This morning unfortunately we observed the school holiday route on the 8 instead of the school day route. As soon as this was realised we took steps to ensure all customers reached the correct destination.
“Unfortunately, against our advice, some students chose to leave the bus before we could drop them off at school.
“We apologise sincerely for any upset caused to the students, parents and the school and obviously measures have been put in place to ensure this will not happen again.”
‘Even the drivers don’t know where they are going now’