When we launched the Bus Campaign survey in January, I asked you to share your experiences of getting to and from Roehampton. 621 of you responded. Hundreds wrote to us at length about how bus failures are affecting your lives, your studies, your finances, your safety, and your mental health.

I want to start by saying: we heard you. Every single response was read, analysed, and has now been put in front of the people who can do something about it.

What the data showed

The results were striking although if you're a commuting student, probably not surprising.

80.6% of you have missed lectures or seminars because of bus delays or cancellations. Nearly a third have been late to or missed an exam or formal assessment. Almost half of you feel unsafe waiting at bus stops at night or in bad weather. And based on how often students told us they'd had to spend money on taxis or Ubers when buses failed, we estimate that transport failures are costing Roehampton students approximately £163,000 per year in unplanned travel costs. Money that should stay in your pockets!

Route 265, used by nearly 60% of respondents, came out as the worst performer. Nearly three quarters of its users find buses too full to board on a regular basis. More than half experience cancellations often or very often. That is not an acceptable standard for a route that hundreds of students depend on every single day.

The safety findings were some of the most powerful. Women travelling alone, disabled students, students with chronic health conditions – your open-text responses made clear that this isn't just an inconvenience. For many of you, waiting alone at an unlit, unsheltered bus stop at night is genuinely frightening. Those voices are in the report, in your own words, and I want to make sure the people making decisions about these routes understand what their failures actually feel like on the ground.

You can read the full report here.

What RSU has done with it

We didn't wait around. Here's what happened since the survey closed.

On 9 March, I travelled with fellow RSU student leaders (Digby Stuart College President, Divanshi Sharma, and Southlands College President, Kshiteej Avinash Nimbalkar) to meet Councillor Jeremy Ambache, Mayor of Wandsworth, to discuss the transport challenges our students face and what the Council can do to help.

On 11 March, our Student Trustee Eleanor Mozley represented RSU at a Transport for London roundtable organised by Elly Baker AM and chaired by Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor for Transport, alongside student leaders from universities across London.

On 20 March, our full Bus Campaign Report was formally tabled at the Roehampton Bus Taskforce meeting, attended by Fleur Anderson MP, TfL's Head of Buses, the Cabinet Member for Transport, and local partners. Our six recommendations – more frequent buses, a reliability audit, better safety infrastructure, a replacement for the University's withdrawn shuttle service, a formal TfL liaison, and improved real-time communications – were formally put to the Taskforce by Fleur.

What comes next

That meeting is not the end of this campaign. RSU will be following up with Fleur Anderson's office to understand what commitments were made and by whom. We will be reporting back to you on what TfL and Wandsworth Council have agreed to do, and by when.

We are also exploring a collaboration with a local community group campaigning to have Barnes Station rezoned from Zone 3 to Zone 2/3. A change that would directly reduce overcrowding on the 265 and other Putney-bound routes by making Barnes a viable alternative for Roehampton commuters while also reducing costs. More on that soon.

Also, student chose Improve Transport Links as one of the Big 6 Student Priorities in this year's Student Leadership Elections. We'll be looking at how we can evolve this campaign in scope to meet that challenge in the next academic year.

If you want to get more involved (140 of you indicated in the survey that you'd like to join an RSU campaign team on transport and we’ll be in touch) drop us a message at rsu@roehampton.ac.uk.

Stay connected,
Joshua Kayode
RSU President