Students left on kerb as school bus misses stop times

Parents are incensed after a school bus left inner-city Brisbane students by the kerbside, weeks after the council rolled out changes that were meant to get them to school on time.

Jo Keehan said her daughter, a student at Fortitude Valley State Secondary College for the past three years, had often been dropped off late by her school bus.

But the problem came to a head last Friday when she waited for half-an-hour, without the bus arriving.

“I spent 15 minutes on the phone to Translink, trying to find the location of that bus because they’re not traceable on the app,” Keehan said.

The mum-of-two believed the bus, route 931, had never arrived.

But Translink told her it had instead arrived about 13 minutes early. The entire route through New Farm, Teneriffe and Bowen Hills is timetabled to take 30 minutes.

Last week, this masthead reported that another dedicated school route, the S785 to Mt St Michael’s College, had also left students believing their ride would not show up, with some waiting for up to 30 minutes.

In that case, Translink revealed the route had been affected by routine traffic and delays on the vehicle’s previous route.

However, in the case of the 931 Fortitude Valley route, Brisbane City Council – which manages dedicated school buses – found it had arrived early due to human error.

“That’s not turning up,” Keehan said.

“A school bus, if they arrive at a destination early … they should wait there for a minute because families go: ‘OK then, we’ll get there at this time to get on the bus.’”

Keehan said in other instances the bus had left its planned route.

“[One time] when the bus driver was alerted to the fact that he had taken the wrong direction, he just let all the children off the bus rather than turning around and coming back,” she said.

The council said it had not received phone calls reporting such an incident in this school year.

Transport chair Andrew Wines said student safety was a “fundamental priority” for the council.

“I know how concerning these disruptions can be, and I want to assure families we are always monitoring our bus network and making changes where needed,” he said.

The council tweaked the 931 bus timetable at the start of the school year, shifting services back every weekday morning except Wednesday for a new school arrival time of 9.10am.

On Wednesdays the bus was timetabled to arrive at 8.55am, in time for the school’s 9.05am assembly.

However, families said the bus continued to arrive late for assemblies. Other parents who spoke to this masthead said they had received emails from the school warning about repeated late arrivals.

Keehan said she wanted the option to track school buses restored after it had been wiped when the new app rolled out last year.

“There’s no way to alert if the bus has come early, if it’s not coming at all, or if it’s late,” she said.

Wines said families’ concerns with the 931 service were being addressed. The council has also launched a review of the S785 service.

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.