Essex families 'crippled' by school bus fare hikes for kids

Parents are now paying around £1,000 per child each year for the journey to and from school, with some warning it is forcing them to cut back on essential spending and educational opportunities.

Faye Kennedy, from Tollesbury, pays for three children to travel to Plume Academy in Maldon. The fare is £6.30 for each return journey.

“For our three children, this will be £18.90 per day – £94.50 per week, simply for our children to attend school,” she said.

“This cost is going to be truly prohibitive for many families. It is going to cripple a lot of families.”

Ms Kennedy said buses were often full and late, leaving pupils standing at the roadside or arriving late at school.

Cost - Mum Faye Kennedy said it costs almost £100 per week for her three children to get to school (Image: Faye Kennedy)

Caroline Beresford pays £6.90 each day for each of her two children to travel to Plume Academy. The total is £13.80 per school day, or about £69 a week.

Over a 190-day school year, that is £2,622 for two children.

Ms Beresford said: “We should not have to choose between meeting the cost of getting our children to school and managing other essential household expenses.”

Central Connect Transport, which operates several school bus services in Essex, reported a net profit after tax of £1.12million for the year ending March 2025.

This was down from £1.97 million the previous year, despite turnover rising to £24.96 million, up from £15.97 million.

Company - Central Connect apologised to parents for not communicating the price changes clearly (Image: STEVEN QUY/Central Connect Buses)

Essex County Council said Central Connect was the only company which chose to increase its fares to this scale, which it said was “a disappointing decision which targets local children and families”.

A spokesperson for Transport Made Simple, the parent company for Central Connect, said the old fares did not cover the costs to run a school bus every day and that without the price increase, the services would not have survived.

The spokesperson said: "To parents, we are sorry. This increase is significant, and we did not communicate it well enough. Parents deserved better warning and a clearer explanation, and that is on us.

“We have taken learnings from this and look to improve our communications next year.”

They added they would be keen to work together with Essex County Council for support with costs, particularly with fuel.