Written by Thomas Carabine
An online petition to make the Kingston University buses free has over 1300 signatures, after an announcement that the buses will now become a paid service.
The change means that students using the buses will have to pay a £1.10 fare per journey for using the KU1 or KU2 bus routes.
Lucy Felicity Johnstone, a filmmaking student and the petition maker, said she made the petition because she felt “really betrayed by the university.”
“When the university haven’t given us a form to express our opinion, it’s important that we had somewhere to go,” Johnstone said.
The change comes after the takeover of the previous operator First Bus ending their licence to run the KU routes, with Falcon Bus taking over in the summer. Liberal Democrats leader and Kingston and Surbiton MP Sir Ed Davey has also given his support in a letter to Kingston University, stating he opposes the change.
He said: “Students are concerned that the upcoming implementation of charges for the intersite bus service has been introduced without meaningful consultation and will place an additional financial burden on those already facing significant cost-of-living pressures.”
A Kingston University Spokesperson has said “Passengers are now benefitting from additional and more frequent services. The enhanced service is helping ease crowding at peak times and providing greater capacity across all routes connecting our campuses and halls of residence.”
“We are giving passengers who need to travel more frequently the option to purchase daily tickets at a capped rate to keep costs to a minimum. Passengers can purchase their daily tickets via the Falcon Buses app and this will mean they pay no more than £2.20 a day”.
Some students have said that they have not seen a difference in the service since the start of the new academic year.
Law student Mathias Gonzalez-Vieira said that the frequency should be increased.
“We went to one stop where it literally said 40mins for the next KU1 bus and we ended up walking 30mins instead,” Mathias Gonzalez-Vieira said.
Some students think that introducing fares would improve the reliability and service of these buses.
Transport content creator and accounting and finance student Adi Jha thinks that “despite paying for the buses, the frequency and reliability of the buses has been improved.”
“They’ve now added 4 vehicles in the peak times to make the frequency every 20 minutes between Seething Wells and Roehampton Vale campus for the KU1 which is excellent,” Adi said.