Public transport, a bit crap isn't it?

[thelawnet]

I'm at a loss to work out why an eleven year old has to travel from Woking to Surbiton, across fifteen miles of suburbia. It sounds like an education problem, not a public transport problem.

Woking to Kingston actually.

Unfortunately the evidence is that the local comp would not satisfy his potential.

He is very good at maths, and you basically have no chance if you stick just to the (now very basic) Maths A Level syllabus, which most schools will do, since the priority is getting grades, not fulfilling the potential of all http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Education/article1156765.ece.

The near(ish) private school, which takes a fairly similar profile on entry, Hampton, lays on 24 separate buses, some from 20+ miles away.

Anyway, my point was that A to B even in areas served with fast, regular trains to London is very often a PITA. To get to Reading similarly takes an hour+.

 

[srw]

Woking to Kingston is well under an hour on the train - change at Clapham Junction. And I'd be very surprised indeed if there weren't appropriate schools in Woking or Guildford (10 minutes away by train) - two very large, very affluent towns with substantial populations of articulate middle-class parents.

 

[screenman]

Minicab?

 

[srw]

Minicab?

Minicab along the A320 in rush hour? That's when you discover just how good public transport is.

 

[screenman]

Good point, it is 25 years since I lived in that area, and it was busy then.

On another note, eldest left school at 15 and did not pass 11+ he has now got a masters in advanced mathematics or something. Youngest also did not pass and he is getting towards the end of his degree in maths.

Whilst me, well born thick and seems like staying thick, did pass 11+ but decided on comprehensive school, and have employed plenty who went to grammar.

 

[compo]

I failed the 11plus but still ended up in a very exclusive, private school. It was very hard to get in (and even harder to get out). It was so exclusive it took the recommendation of three magistrates to get in.

 

[thelawnet]

Woking to Kingston is well under an hour on the train - change at Clapham Junction. And I'd be very surprised indeed if there weren't appropriate schools in Woking or Guildford (10 minutes away by train) - two very large, very affluent towns with substantial populations of articulate middle-class parents.

No trains from Woking to Clapham Junction in the morning peak (they are all fast to Waterloo).

http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/WOK/CLJ/tomorrow/0800/dep

Best option was 08:02, changing at Surbiton and New Malden, and requiring us to leave the house about 7:40am (as opposed to 8am by bike)
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/timesandfares/WOK/KNG/tomorrow/0800/dep
and arriving 08:55.

Next option was 08:32 arriving 9:25 - much too late.

There's a good school in West End, a few miles from Woking:

http://www.gordons.surrey.sch.uk/

but you need to live within a few yards of the front gate.

There's a good private school in Guildford:

http://www.rgs-guildford.co.uk/page_viewer.asp?page=Welcome&pid=1

but it's very selective, and no guarantee to get in, not to mention £14k/year.

There's a good comprehensive in Guildford or two, but completely irrelevant to Woking, as any even half-decent comp would not extend to the next town (whereas grammars cast their net much wider, in the case of Tiffin across the whole country).

There's a good Catholic 'comprehensive' school in Woking, which takes exclusively from specifc Catholic primary schools, and you have no chance of getting in from any other school.

http://www.sjb.surrey.sch.uk/

The other three senior schools in Woking are middling at best, one is officially 'failing'.

 

[grolyat]

So the local schools are crap and the public transport is crap...

 

[thelawnet]

No the public transport is quite good, as public transport goes. But public transport is crap by definition....

 

[screenman]

In rural Lincolnshire they have a saying, what is a bus and some of the elders can be heard mentioning a man called Beeching, I think he had something to do with helping to create Sutrans routes.

Snorri, well spotted.

 

[snorri]

a man called Beecham,.

That would be Beeching, Beecham did the pills.

 

[screenman]

Here is our Local bus time table, you can see anyone working in Lincoln with an 8.30 or prior start is a bit handicapped. These are first bus times and from Bucknall on is the only way in without walking 4 miles to the nearest alternative stops.

Horncastle Market Place
0725

Thimbleby
0729

Horsington
0734

Bucknall
0737

Southrey
0745

Bardney Memorial
0750

Potterhanworth Booths
0754

Branston Booths
0756

Washingborough Canterbury Drive
0801

Heighington Almond Ave
0806

Washingborough Park Lane
0811

Washingborough High Street
0812

Lincoln Bus Station
0830

 

[dellzeqq]

strange

No the public transport is quite good, as public transport goes. But public transport is crap by definition....

strange - I find public transport a joy. Perhaps that's because I don't expect to get from Woking to Guildford in a hurry

 

[DRHysted]

I am having the joys of using public transport this (and next) week.

My experiance (especially as I sat in the station for an hour waiting for a train to come home tonight) is that it's fine for people with plenty of time. My current journey is about 11 miles and it's taking me between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to complete, 25 minutes of that is walking, 6 minutes sitting on the train, the rest is waiting!

 

[thelawnet]

strange
strange - I find public transport a joy. Perhaps that's because I don't expect to get from Woking to Guildford in a hurry

Hmm. I think it can fine if you haven't got anywhere to go in a hurry, but of course in that case why would you be on the train.... If you are in a hurry, it's annoying, and at rush hour, it's full of crowded miserable smelly people, and just not good....