There are many arts opportunities and performances that take place across Birmingham but schools often find difficulty in hiring coaches. Schools often do not feel comfortable using public transport. Use of public transport often raises concerns of.
Below are two opportunities that exist in Birmingham and the West Midlands that can help support support schools with arranging transport.
Transport for West Midlands have a ‘ClassPass’ that provides travel on WM trains, buses or trams. You can get a Network Class Pass to use public transport for trips. It is cheaper than a coach or individual tickets. A One Day Network Class Pass will allow travel on as many buses, trains and trams after 9am within the West Midlands.
There are many options such as;
More information can be found on the following website https://www.tfwm.org.uk/resources-and-support/resources-and-support-for-education-providers/
Alternatively National Express also have a classpass for buses only. This comes under a scheme of work they deliver called NX Education.
You can get in touch with them on the link below: https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/partnerships-hub/nx-education
Information on the Class Pass:
We know that educational trips and vocational adventures are really important and memorable parts of growing up. They are often golden opportunities to reward, inspire and nurture young minds.
That's why we can offer a Class Pass, with up to 30 children & 6 adults travelling on any National Express West Midlands and Coventry bus all day long.
*£59 divided by 36 people.
We work with a number of attractions that offer discounted entry when travelling with a class pass!
Upon booking, please advise the attraction that you will be travelling with a National Express Class Pass. This will ensure that the incentive or discount is applied to your booking. You may have to present your Class Pass upon arrival at the attraction.
Terms and conditions apply.
Class passes will need to be ordered up to 2 weeks in advance to ensure your tickets have arrived in time for travel. Email our sales team on the details below to order.
classpass@nationalexpress.com
Class Pass consists of three scratchcards, each allowing bus travel for 10 children aged 5-15 plus two adults.
On the day of travel, validate your Class Pass by scratching the correct day, month and year and show this to the driver when boarding the bus.
All the information above and more can be found here: https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands/class-pass
National express and TfWM both offer resources and support to schools around travel, but again they are under-utilised. Please do check out the options above to find cost-effective methods to support transport for your schools.
