Waiting for the bus
Some buses were delayed as students went back to school, but Toronto managed to avoid a repeat of last year’s debacle,
Dozens of Toronto school bus routes were hit with delays as elementary and high school students returned to classes Tuesday.
Delays were reported on 139 routes in the morning, and on 90 in the afternoon.
Kevin Hodgkinson, general manager of the Toronto Student Transportation Group, said that the numbers were higher than usual for a typical day.
“On average, you’re looking at about 30 delays each day, morning or afternoon,” Hodgkinson said.
He said about 45 per cent of the delays were due to traffic, with other reasons including breakdowns and drivers who didn’t show up for work.
According to the Toronto Student Transportation Group’s website, buses for the Catholic and public boards were delayed by anywhere from 10 to 80 minutes.
“We are having some delays as we do every day,” Toronto District School Board spokesperson Ryan Bird said Tuesday morning.
Bird said the actual number of routes with delays was somewhat lower than reported, because a single bus route may serve as many as three or four schools, allowing the same delay to show up several times on the website.
Hodgkinson said that despite the delays, Tuesday’s bus situation was better than the first day of school in 2016.
Last year, hundreds of parents complained to the TDSB after a shortage of bus drivers affected more than 2,600 students on the first day of school.
This year, all school bus companies are required to report the reasons for their delays to the Toronto Student Transportation Group. With files from Salmaan Farooqui