Glasshouse Country Coaches working to resolve parents’ concerns
By Kirra Livingstone
A LAST-minute notice to families about new hinterland school bus routes left students and parents scrambling ahead of the 2025 school year.
Some students said they were required to walk up to two kilometres to new bus stops, with others taking an hour longer than usual to be dropped home.
Glasshouse Country Coaches emailed parents on the Friday before the start of the school year notifying parents that a safety assessment had forced an adjustment to usual routes.
Schools affected included Glasshouse Christian College, Beerwah State High and Maleny State High.
“Over the past six weeks we have conducted risk assessments on all bus stops which has resulted in the adjustment of some of our previous school routes and bus stops,” GC Coaches wrote.
“This means (the student’s) bus number and driver may have changed.
“This also means we are no longer able to pick up or drop off outside the designated bus stops due to the safety risk it may incur.”
One mother, Amanda Laurens, said it had taken her son an extra hour to get home this year.
“He goes to Glasshouse Christian College and we live in Beerburrum. He used to get home at 3.30pm, but on Tuesday he got home at 4.30pm,” she said.
“He used to be dropped off at Church Street, but now he’s dropped off at the Beerburrum State School, so it’s a longer walk home for him too.
“I got an email about the time changes on Friday, January 24 but I didn’t really read how different the drop off time would be.”
Amanda later added that on Wednesday, her son was dropped off at his usual time of 3.30pm, and was hopeful this would be permanent.
“It doesn’t matter so much earlier in the week, but on Wednesday and Thursday, he has sport in Beerwah at 5pm,” she said.
“I can’t get him to sport on time if he’s only getting dropped off at 4.30pm.”
GCC mum, Shara Labinskey, said her child and other students who used to be dropped off on Old Peachester Road, were now being dropped at an unsafe and busy, location on Peachester Road.
Shara has since been in contact with Glasshouse Country Coaches, and said they reached a safe alternative for students to get dropped off at Old Peachester Road again.
“It was unsafe for the bus driver to do a turnaround on Old Peachester Road which is why the drop off spot was moved to Peachester Road,” she said.
“Seven Peaks Farm Stay have given them authority to be able to turn the bus around in their driveway.
“That’s the new drop off location for that specific bus, they agreed to it and I think it was a good solution, and I think a lot of families appreciate it.”
GC Coaches, which is believed to be working closely with families to address the changes, referred questions about the issue to the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
A Translink spokesperson said there were a number of reasons for bus companies to adjust their bus routes ahead of a new school year.
“Changes are made to school bus timetables and services each year due to a number of factors including population growth, new schools, and safety reasons, as well as helping to address issues such as crowding on existing routes and providing services to previously unserved residential areas,” they said.
“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.
“It is the responsibility of bus operators to make changes to the network, determining the routes and scheduling/timetables.”
kirra@gcnews.com.au
“We are resolving everything, we are very approachable and if anyone has concerns they just need to call us,” the spokesperson said. “Normally it’s done within five seconds but it’s been a bit busier this week, but we will get back into the flow.
“We highly appreciate any feedback people come back with, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work.”
GC Coaches said the issue was complicated by an influx of new students using their services and a safety overhaul as reasons for changing the school bus routes. “There’s a lot of new families, routes have been amended to better suit families, and to ensure the bus routes are safe,” they told GC&M News.
“We are more than open to work with families with any issues that they have and that they can reach out to us at any time.”
While school bus routes are being amended, GC Coaches asked families to remain patient.
“We are taking on all your concerns on board, just keep in mind we’re a small office, it takes time to do it and it takes about an hour to do each one individually to respond to them,” they said.
“We are just waiting for all the responses to come in and do it all in one hit and we’ll send out the official amended timetables.”