Risk of losing rural school bus services
Children switching from commercially run and Ministry of Education funded bus services to public transport is putting rural school runs at risk, a joint councils committee has heard.
In a transport committee meeting on Tuesday, Tasman deputy mayor and committee chair Stuart Bryant asked a council transport manager what effect the migration of children onto public transport was having on Ministry of Education funded buses.
Bryant said South Island chairs had had the realisation that if children switched to these services, school bus routes could be lost as a result.
Manager transport and solid waste Marg Parfitt said the issue was complex. There were Ministry of Education services that were funded if students lived four kilometres away from the school they needed to go to, she said.
If they chose to bypass that school and go to another school, then there were commercially operated fare paying services, Parfitt explained.
“The effect we're having on those commercially run services is that we are putting them at risk because they are maybe no longer as financially viable as they were.”
That could affect students that the councils didn’t service, such as those in Hira, or in Nelson north, she said.
“Those families have little choice if they don't qualify for a Ministry of Education bus service, and some of them don't.”
Where the Ministry of Education services made it complex was if the joint councils had a scheduled service running in the same direction or route to them, they would withdraw their services, she told councillors.
However, they might have three buses going on the route, while the council run bus service might have one, so would never be able to meet demand, she said.
Parfitt said she would like for the ministries of transport and education to be in communication with each other around modal shift and keeping single occupancy vehicles or low occupancy vehicle trips to a minimum using public transport.
“You’re trying to tell us there’s a real risk particularly in rural areas,” clarified Bryant.
“That’s what I am concerned about, the potential of losing some bus runs that are funded by the Ministry of Education.”
“There is a risk,” Parfitt answered.
Nelson mayor and committee deputy chair Nick Smith said the co-ordination between the Ministry of Education and its bus services and the public services that were run by the councils in partnership with the Ministry of Education had “always been an area of contention and difficulty”.
“If we want to advance a sensible reform, we should be advocating for there to be one public agency, the Ministry of Transport, responsible for both services so that we can get far better coordination, because the issue that's been highlighted ... is one that just keeps causing difficulties for those that are trying to plan integrated service.”
To qualify for student transport assistance, typically a place on a school bus, students must be attending the closest state school they can enrol in, live a certain distance away from the school, and there must be no suitable public transport available.
Ministry of Education group manager school transport James Meffan said the primary responsibility for transporting children to and from school rested with their caregivers.
The Ministry was the school transport provider of “last resort” and did not provide a duplicate service where public transport was available, Meffan said.
School transport routes were periodically reviewed to respond to demographic changes, and if a review found there was a suitable public transport available, the Ministry would work with the local councils to develop a transition plan that allowed them sufficient time to plan and apply for funding to adjust their services to meet the increased demand.