Article: School kids stranded as ferry-bus connection fails

[ozbob]

From the Bayside Bulletin click here!

School kids stranded as ferry-bus connection fails

School kids stranded as ferry-bus connection fails
By Judith Kerr
Feb. 7, 2013, 4:30 p.m.

Redland ferry and bus company managers have met to draw up a strategy to ensure school buses connect with ferries after 119 school students were left stranded at Weinam Creek marina last week.

The meeting came after a Macleay Island mother told Veolia bus company to "pick up its game and the kids" after a school bus left without Victoria Point and Cleveland high school students.

First-time high school student Nina Moore, from Macleay, claimed she had been refused admission to a Veolia 250 bus after arriving at the ferry terminal bus stop to find her 7.55am 5053 school bus had departed without her.

Mother Kerryn Moore said a woman bus driver told her 11-year-old daughter she could not board the bus because she didn't have a school bus pass.

Nina then paid to get on the later 8.10am 250 Veolia bus to Cleveland, which does not stop at Cleveland District State High School and got off at Ross Court on Bloomfield Street.

"Some of these students are just 11 years old and were on their fourth day of grade 7 high school in a different suburb, in a place they do not know," Mrs Moore said.

"The children were not dropped at the school and had no clue on how to get to the school from Ross Court and were left stranded on the side of the road."

Nina rang her dad, Rob Moore, who met the students and walked with them to the school.

Veolia Queensland operations support officer Rob Lamont said the school bus service from the ferry terminal departed on time and drivers claimed no student was left waiting at the marina.

Mr Lamont said he had no knowledge of a driver refusing a child admission to a bus and said it was TransLink policy for drivers never to leave a child waiting at a bus stop.

He blamed the poor ferry-bus connection that day on ferry company Bay Island Transit Systems and praised his bus drivers for helping the students get to school.

He said a quick-thinking bus driver noted the large number of students at the marina and loaded all the Cleveland High students before ringing Veolia headquarters and requesting for another driver to pick up the rest.

"On the morning in question, we can only assume that the students were on a late-running ferry and ended up taking the 250 service, scheduled to depart the marina at 8.10am, and were dropped off on the corner of Bloomfield and Russell streets."

Mr Lamont said all Veolia bus drivers have been told they cannot refuse travel for a child until the end of February when all children have been issued bus passes.
See your ad here

Not turning away children from buses was a ruling made as a result of the abduction of murdered teen Daniel Morcombe from a Sunshine Coast bus stop in 2003.

The committal hearing for Brett Peter Cowan, 43, charged with the teen's murder started in Brisbane during the week.

Ferry company Bay Island Transit manager Debbie Wilson said the Redland Bay incident was "an unfortunate miscommunication" that resulted in the school bus leaving before the students' ferry docked.

"We believe Veolia's only fault is that they failed to realise the third boat (the school boat) had not arrived.