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Teething problems with new bus smartcards     22/9/14

Teething problems are being experienced with the introduction of ‘smartcard’ bus passes to pupils at Sir E Scott School in Harris.

 

At the beginning of the new term in August, older pupils in Sir E Scott School began using the Young Scot card and younger pupils the KidZ card.

 

The cards are swiped through bus ticket machines in place of normal bus passes issued by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

 

Problems have already come to light with a significant issue arising when pupils travel to destinations other than their home at the end of the school day.

 

The new card system has no way of charging pupils for the second destination so pupils have to pay cash to buy tickets to any destination other than their home.

 

A proposal to add a second ‘product’ to the smartcards – allowing pupils to use alternative bus services – will be considered by Comhairle members of the council’s education committee this week.

 

Parents may have to pay for the additional bus services using on-line payments to load funds onto the smartcard which will then charge a fare for the second service and debit the smartcard.

 

A project team is monitoring activity registered on bus ticket machines after they discovered “some drivers are not asking all pupils to present their smartcards to register their presence on the bus.”

 

The pilot scheme marks the final stage of the 14 month smartcard project which began with the purchase of nine ticket machines, funded by Transport Scotland, with a spare machine funded by the Comhairle.

 

The second phase ensured that every pupil in Sir E Scott School had an NEC (National Entitlement Card) smartcard – either the Young Scot card or KidZ card, delivered with assistance of the council’s Community Education Services.

 

Phase three was the activation of the smartcards and ‘products’; and stage four the pilot introduction in August.

 

On the first day of the pilot there were four pupils without a smartcard – three who couldn’t locate their card and were re-issued with another, and one primary pupil who had been missed during the initial card issue and who has now been issued a smartcard.