North Notts College group launches Covid-secure bus service to help students continue to access education

Following Government advice to minimise public transport use, many schools and colleges have been left searching for safe alternative means to ensure students can continue to access learning.

The RNN Group, which owns North Notts, Rotherham and Dearne Valley Colleges, has established three bus routes in partnership with operator Zeelo.

RNN director Sally Steadman said: “We have had a challenging time recently and had to close a campus this summer. But in order to ensure that families and students could still access their education easily we knew the bus provision was vital.

“Initially we just looked at one bus route, but after carrying out a research project in the summer we were able to use the bus services as a recruitment tool to get students from further afield.”

She added: “The wellbeing of our students is paramount and now we have a trusted partner who can deliver that.”

One route runs from Retford and Worksop to Rotherham and Dearne Valley with five interim stops.

The second runs from Dinnington to Dearne Valley calling at five stops in between.

The third begins travels from Killamarsh to Dearne Valley and makes eight stops.

Zeelo, which has bases in London, South Africa, Ireland and Italy, transports more than a 1million workers every year to offices belonging to the likes of Ocado, Amazon, Jaguar Land Rover, Matches Fashion, Colgate and Argos.

According to the company, its vehicles are now fitted with air-filtration and wet fogging systems to clean 99 per cent of air particles.

Its app also enables social distancing and contact tracing. If a rider informs the company they are showing symptoms of the virus, fellow passengers who may have been travelling with them in the past can be alerted.

Zeelo chief executive Sam Ryan said: “This is a game-changing development and we are excited to showcase the world’s safest transport during this challenging time.

“We are delighted we could not only help RNN Group deliver a service, but give them a service which brings more students to their door.”

For more information, see https://bit.ly/3oiNMTu.