Students will head back to class next week, but for a group of GTA students, they could end up spending three hours a day on the bus, even though their school is a 25-minute drive away.
Myrna Simpson, whose kids attend Pickering High School, says the new bus route operated by Durham Student Transportation Services (DSTS) will now take nearly 90 minutes each way, meaning her children will spend close to three hours daily commuting.
“When I initially saw the bus schedule, I was quite shocked because it’s twice as long as it was last year, and the duration is quite excessive,” Simpson tells CityNews. “An hour and a half on the bus, the bus is really hot or cold, it’s really noisy, there are no seat belts, the seats are uncomfortable – it’s just not an ideal situation.”
Parents Blanca and Steve Scouller share similar concerns when it comes to the negative effects the long ride will have on their son Matthew’s sleep, studies and extracurricular activities.
“I work downtown and his commute across Ajax, a relatively small town, is longer than mine via GO Train and TTC, so I could not get over just how this was going to take,” he said.
Scouller says when a fellow parent contacted the DSTS, they were told the situation is unlikely to change.
“They said there is nothing we could do. The time is the time, and that’s it,” Blanca said, adding that the reason given was that there are not enough school bus drivers.
Ajax MPP Rob Cerjanec points to provincial underfunding as a root cause.
“Frankly, it’s not right, and the province can step in and do a lot more on the funding side because school bus drivers they’re making a little bit over $20 an hour. It’s not very much, it’s hard to recruit and retain those individuals,” he said.
In a statement, advocacy group School Bus Ontario echoed those comments, saying in part, “There is a chronic and severe driver shortage in Ontario and across Canada. School Bus Ontario is doing everything it can to help attract and retain new drivers to the profession.”
CityNews reached out to the province for a response, but has yet to receive a response.
The Durham District School Board tells CityNews they are still in the process of confirming bus routes and are reviewing options to reduce ride times.
Local trustee Donna Edwards says she is working to address the issue.
DSTS states on its website that its team will make every effort to ensure that bus rides do not exceed 60 minutes each way, but that timeline doesn’t factor in traffic or construction.
