Students at an inner-Brisbane high school are being forced to snub the city’s school bus service over fears of repeated late slips, with parents recording delays as long as 20 minutes.
Kate Craig’s daughter began year 7 at Mt St Michael’s College at the start of the year, and has been late every time she has needed to rely on Brisbane’s dedicated school bus service.
“We’re in a situation that she has to catch a bus to get to school because we work, and now she’s very uncomfortable in the process because she has no faith that it will work as it should,” she said.
The S785 service is timetabled to pick up students from Enoggera station at 8.13am, then run down Wardell Street towards the school, making several stops on the way to pick up more students.
It is the only service running direct from the train station into the school, and Craig said the days that her daughter had been there, about 20 other students were also waiting.
Another parent whose daughter had taken the bus just under a dozen times said the bus had been late for 40 per cent of those trips, and in one instance a mobile tracker on her daughter’s phone had shown her still waiting for the bus at the train station shortly before 8.30am.
Craig said her daughter suffered the same on her first attempt to catch the bus.
“She called me in a panic that morning … they were all a bit lost as to what to do, so I went and collected them and drove them to school that day,” she said.
“They were probably 20 minutes late by the time we did that process.”
She said late arrival meant she needed to contact the school and explain the situation, and said some teachers would still refuse entry for tardy students.
Mt St Michaels College’s student code of conduct states continued late arrival would eventually require students to make up the lost learning time.
Craig contacted Translink and the Brisbane City Council, who are jointly responsible for different parts of the service, and was told the S785 route was between 10 and 30 minutes late more than 50 per cent of the time.
“It’s a school bus, it’s labelled with an S indicating that it’s just a school route … its only purpose is to convey the students to school,” Craig said.
“Clearly, the bus isn’t fit for purpose.”
Craig said she’d given up on the service, and would send her student on public buses despite her safety concerns.
“It’s not a direct route from the train station to her school, so she’s having to walk much further than she otherwise would … and it also means that she’s crossing some really busy roads,” she said.
Other parents who contacted Translink to report the late services said they’d received template responses that did not address their concerns, or nothing at all.
A spokesperson from the Department of Main Roads, which oversees Translink, confirmed the bus was late “on a number of occasions this year”.
“The morning S785 service has arrived late at the school due to congestion delaying the bus prior to commencing its service,” the spokesperson said.
“TMR and BCC are actively monitoring this issue and are working collaboratively to develop a solution to ensure students can more reliably arrive at school on time.”
The council confirmed it was currently investigating the route.
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