Every morning I find myself battling with bus times, under constant anxiety of being late to school or getting home an hour after my school ends. I am not the only person affected by this temperamental bus service - it needs to end now. 

The 346 is a single decker bus that runs from Harold Hill to Upminster. However, it only runs every 20 minutes, paling in comparison to the frequency of other buses in the area during rush hour. The 346 is popular for not only students who live in Harold Wood or Harold Hill going to schools in Upminster such as Coopers, Sacred Heart, Hall Mead and Gaynes but also commuters who need to get to Upminster Station in order to get to work. 

Due to its popularity, the buses are generally extremely packed, meaning that most mornings, the bus driver skips both me and my friends making us late to school despite us being at the bus stop early. Furthermore, the infrequent times and delays on the bus mean we are unable to wait for the next one without being almost 20 minutes late to school! This is detrimental to our education since we have missed parts of important morning lessons due to something that isn’t in either of our control - we are sitting our A-Levels next year. If this continues, we may not be able to perform to the best of our ability or even worse, be late to our exams!

If you are 5 minutes late everyday, that is 3 days worth of education lost. 10 minutes late everyday is 6.5 days lost and 15 minutes is an astounding 10 DAYS OF EDUCATION LOST!

The time to act is NOW! If we don’t implement buses more frequently during the morning times before school and the afternoon times after school, this issue will continue to persist and eventually get out of hand. Not only our youth, but our workers are being affected by this - it is a communal issue that can be resolved with YOUR help. 

Please be a part of this movement - the power lies in the people.