A BUS company which abandoned three schoolchildren at the side of the road in Rubery, has apologised for its behaviour.

The children, who are all pupils at North Bromsgrove High School, were waiting for their bus, the No. 144 on Rubery New Road in Rubery on Thursday morning.

However when they attempted to board the bus, they were told by the driver that their passes weren’t valid for the journey, one they had been making twice a day since September, and they weren’t allowed to get onto the bus.

Lisa Bayliss, the mother of one of the children said: “We’re always a little bit in ‘no man’s land’, so I booked in person to make sure I was booking the right zone. Rubery comes in zone two. If I’m at fault I’ll change her bus pass to a zone three, but we’ve gone on guidance from the Worcestershire hub.”

The three youngsters, who all had zone two bus passes, were forced to get off the bus, and unable to get to school, they called a parent who changed her morning to take them herself.

Lisa added: “I feel anxious, because obviously they were upset, they were embarrassed, one of them was in tears. The bus is never on time to start with, and they’ve stopped children from getting to school, which is appalling.

“They shouldn’t have taken them off the bus. They should have got them to school safely. They were clearly in their school uniform, I might understand it if it was a Saturday and they were just off out together, but the bus company has stopped children getting to school.”

Worcestershire bus company, First Wyvern, which operates the service, apologised unreservedly for the driver’s actions.

Sarah East, general manager for First Worcester said: "We apologise for any inconvenience and confusion that has been caused with this incident whereby students were refused travel on our 144 bus service.

“We do advise all our drivers that our younger travellers should not be refused travel under any circumstances and that any clarity or misunderstanding in terms of travel validity, should be discussed with the person at the time or after travel has taken place. It seems that in this instance, there has been some confusion with travel zones and validity to which we will discuss and communicate to all our driving staff to ensure this situation does not occur again"

A representative from First Wyvern also promised Lisa that the children would be given letters from the Worcestershire Hub stipulating that they have the right pass for the journey, which they can carry on them at all times, and a letter would be posted at the bus depot, to ensure drivers were all aware of the different zone boundaries.