A FATHER has hit out at a bus operator for exploiting school children after he learned his daughter was paying a premium rate for her daily school trip.

Twelve-year-old Poppy has been travelling on the Morebus-operated 781 from Victoria Road in Ferndown, close to her home, to her school at St Peter’s in Southbourne since September.

Her return ticket costs £4.40 which prompted dad David Hale to look for service options. He learned that a cheaper rate of £3.50 is available on other services along the same route but drivers are instructed to charge school children the higher rate.

“My daughter has been travelling on this service since September and we have been paying 90p a day extra. That quickly adds up,” Mr Hale said.

The 781 service is operated on behalf of Dorset County Council.

Mr Hale added: “I think the fact that they can get away with it is just absolutely shocking. Why are school children subsidising this company? I’m really upset about it. We’re being fleeced. The company has admitted that they have deliberately programmed the service not to accept the lower rate. I’m really angry. And it might not just be this service - it’s a massive can of worms.

“The bottom line is children should be offered the lowest fare possible.”

Ed Wills, Morebus operations director, said: “School routes are especially costly because they operate at peak times and typically require an additional vehicle and driver for school term times only. We work hard to maintain these services, ensuring the funding we receive from the council is enough to cover our costs.

“If we made our range of network tickets available on these tendered routes, for example our dayrider tickets, we would require a larger contract value from the council, so we have taken a decision not to do so. This approach has not specifically been requested by Dorset County Council, but it is necessary to ensure we can raise sufficient revenue to cover the cost of operating the service. It is possible to buy term passes, which reduces the cost of travelling on these school services.

“As a result of this enquiry, we have made it clearer on our web-based publicity that some ticket types are not valid on certain school services.”

Chris Hook, the council’s passenger transport manager, said: “Unfortunately due to the premium time of travel, operators have to consider the vehicles required and how to cover the costs when they are not used.

“We encourage all operators to provide information about the variety of tickets but understand that in some cases these may vary from route to route due to business need. In this case the options have not been clear but MoreBus have rectified this.”