School Transport
Every day over 24,000 children attend schools in West Lothian. Of these, the council transports nearly 6,000 children to secondary and primary schools in a variety of vehicles ranging from double deck buses, to coaches, minibuses and taxis.
School transport services are contracted out to approved bus, coach, taxi and private hire car operators. These pages set out to answer some of the most common questions parents and pupils ask and provide route and timetable information for all bus services. West Lothian Council makes safety on school transport a top priority.
Information regarding updates to school transport
Sections 42 and 51 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 require education authorities to provide free transport to a child's catchment school where the walking distance from home is defined as 3 miles or over for all children over eight and 2 miles for children under eight.
Information on who qualifies for free school transport and how to apply.
Policies and procedures in place for school bus travel.
When a child does not qualify for free transport, it is parental responsibility to ensure the child arrives to and from school safely. When a child uses school transport the parent is responsible to see the child arrives and boards the bus in the morning safely and alights the bus in the afternoon.
When children travel to school on school transport, they are expected to adopt an acceptable standard of conduct. Conduct on school buses is the responsibility of the individual pupils and their parents.
What to do in the case of adverse weather.
West Lothian Council is committed to providing a high level service to its customers and your feedback is important. We would appreciate if you could complete these surveys regarding the home to school transport service.
Additional transport provided for some school exam dates.
