Families are experiencing issues two weeks after bus route changes
By Kirra Livingstone
PARENTS say they are still frustrated by changes to hinterland school bus routes, with children taking up to an hour longer to arrive home than last year.
One mother, Annika Morgan, said her son, Taric, who is in grade three and attends Landsborough State School, now has to take two buses to get home to Beerwah. Last year, Taric would leave school at 2.30pm and arrive home at 3pm. This year, he gets home around an hour after leaving school, and has to take a connecting bus from the Beerwah State School to the same drop off location as last year. Annika said it was difficult for both her and her eight-year-old son.
“He said it was a bit stressful especially in those the first couple of days when the connecting bus was running late,” she said.
“He felt stuck at the school, he doesn’t know what’s happening, he doesn’t know that the bus is running late.
“It was also really stressful for me on the first day when the bus was running late because I thought maybe I had missed it and he had started to walk home by himself, I thought should I go home and see if he is waiting for me, or do I call and see if the bus is running late.
“There was no communication that the bus was running late either, at the end of the day it was only 10 minutes, but it was 10 minutes of stressing.”
Annika added that she received no emails that the bus routes had changed, and had to call the school to notify her young son of the changes.
“I had to call the company to work out what the changes were, and then I had to call his school and try to pass the message along to him,” she said.
“When I spoke to the school, they told me that they hadn’t been informed of any changes either.
“I didn’t even get an email at all before the school year started that there were any changes to the bus routes.”
Grandmother, Theresa Kamp, said bus routes had been cofirmed for her granddaughter’s first year of high school last year.
She said they were only informed that the bus from Beerburrum to Beerwah High had been cancelled on the Friday before school started. Another bus with different times has since been organised.
“Everyone planned their lives around the routes, my daughter planned her daughter’s schedule around the agreed bus routes last year,” she said.
“It’s uprooting everyone’s lives if it changes last minute, and for no reason and no information was given.
“It’s her first year in high school, three kids from a small school going on a bus for transport for the first time and just being messed around, and now there’s only two kids on the bus because it doesn’t suit the third anymore.”
Translink did not respond to questions but last week stated that they took the safe transport of children very seriously.
“Translink is aware our delivery partner Glasshouse Country Coaches has re-aligned some school routes to maximise efficiency of the school bus network servicing the local area,”they said.
“Translink will continue to monitor public transport services and work with operators to ensure they meet the needs of the community.” GH Coaches said it had a no comment policy and to direct questions to TMR.
kirra@gcnews.com.au