"Late Arriva buses get my daughter Tring School detentions"

An Aylesbury mum has hit out at Arriva bus service this week, whose persistent late 500 buses are getting Tring School pupils in to trouble.
An Aylesbury mum has hit out at Arriva bus service this week, whose persistent late 500 buses are getting Tring School pupils in to trouble.An Aylesbury mum has hit out at Arriva bus service this week, whose persistent late 500 buses are getting Tring School pupils in to trouble.
An Aylesbury mum has hit out at Arriva bus service this week, whose persistent late 500 buses are getting Tring School pupils in to trouble.

Jo Dodd's daughter Amber usually gets the number 500 bus from Aylesbury to Watford, which goes via Tring School, which Amber attends.

However it is late 'nearly every day' according to Jo, and in some cases doesn't even show up.

Jo is concerned at the duty of care Arriva have to their passengers, and fears the worst could happen if a bus doesn't turn up.

This is leading to big problems with her education as whenever the bus arrives late, Amber finds herself in detention at the Tring School.

Headteacher at Tring School, Sue Collings said:

"Several students travel substantial distances to get to our school each day. They need a reliable transport service to get them to school on time and we hope the500 Arriva bus service can meet its published timetable".

Jo has now started a petition, which you can sign here:

"It's late nearly every day, if it gets there at all!

"There have been instances where I've had to drive back from Berkhamsted where I work, to Aylesbury to pick up my daughter whose been left by Arriva.

Jo claims that this is not the only problem Amber has had with Arriva, as once in Hemel Hempsted she was left stranded because she didn't have a savers card.

The savers card only applies to routes in Hertfordshire.

The bus driver refused to let her board, leaving her stranded.

Jo added: "The public transport in Aylesbury is already very poor - and with the amount of housing the Vale is set to accomodate, it's only going to get worse.

"To add insult to injury, we have to pay for the pleasure of using it."

Arriva issued the following statement in response:

“We are aware that service 500 does suffer some delays, specifically during peak periods when heavy traffic and the increased numbers of passengers wanting to board can impact on our journeys running to schedule despite the vehicles departing our depot on time.

"We recognise the issues that this can cause for some of our customers and are monitoring the situation closely to assess possible solutions.

"We apologise for any inconvenience.”