None DDA Buses still in Service?

[Mayneway]

RE: None DDA Buses still in Service?

(05/01/2016 22:33)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  It actually depends with the merseytravel contracts, some are stopping services where they should be a DDA vehicle. However some tend to go 'unadvertised' to the public, and are not listed on timetables or publicly (usually at the discretion of the school for pupil safety) and therefore could be argued that therefore it is not a passenger service and is actually a daily private hire contract and not require a DDA bus. For example the Woolton St Julies RC High - Childwall 666 service is not publicly timetabled.

It also depends if vehicles have been classified as a "coach" by the DDA definition also as these aren't required to be fully DDA until 2020.

It's all very complicated.

As I understand it if a school service is registered with VOSA/TC then whether it's carrying pensioners or school kids it has to be a DDA complient vehicle if a single decker is used.
The way round it is to not run as a registered service but as a 'private hire' operating directly on behalf of the school. I believe this is what a small company local to me is doing (smiths of Marple), the vehicles used on Glossop schools today and yesterday were single deckers but were certainly not DDA complient lol.

I remember a few years ago talking to a former Hulme hall driver (now drives for Elite coaches), who told me that this was thier method for getting around the DDA regulations. They simply de-registered all thier commercial school services and asked the schools to collect fares and sell tickets on thier behalf and it would mean they could use pretty much whatever they wanted regardless of DDA specification. Obviously they got took over several months later.