Sunshine Coast - School transport

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Sunshine Coast Daily --> Parents furious over 'ridiculous' daily transport to school

IMAGINE having to catch two trains and ride two buses with a 40-minute wait each way just to get to and from school.

It's the reality for Mooloolah Valley students getting ready to enrol in high school, with no bus service directly to Maleny State High School.

According to mum Rebecca Watson, there is a bus service to Beerwah State High School, where she wants to send her son next year but can't because she doesn't live in the school catchment zone.

She is forced to send her son to Maleny and to do that, he must go to the train station every morning, catch a train to Landsborough and then wait up to 40 minutes for the bus to Maleny to arrive.

Her 12-year-old son would repeat this after school to get home, and every day for the rest of the school year.

Ms Watson said in transport costs it worked out to be about $75 a week.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," Ms Watson said.

"Mooloolah Valley parents have been petitioning for change since last year and nothing has changed," she said.

In 2017 a petition that called for a local bus service to take children to and from Maleny gained signatures of 120 fed-up parents.

A year later, the movement has only gained backing from more parents who will soon have to put their children through the same daily transport.

Petition organisers in 2017, Lisa West and Rebecca Shepperson, said parents had concerns about leaving their children, some as young as 11, to wait at a public train station.

"As working parents we rely on transport services to get our children to school but the service that is currently available to us in Mooloolah means sending them off unsupervised. We constantly worry about their safety," Ms Shepperson said.

"We are at the mercy of the public transport system which does not always line up with the charter bus service. If there are delays, our children can be left waiting for up to 40 minutes," Ms West said.

"There is also the financial strain as parents are unable to obtain fee relief for this transportation. While fee relief does exist, the service we are eligible to get the relief for does not exist."

Ms Watson said if the situation continued to be ignored she would pull her son from public schooling.

"I can't afford thousands of dollars each year to get my son to and from school," she said.

"Some parents have even thought about home-schooling, so have I."

Both the Department of Education and Department of Transport were contacted for comment.

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Queensland Parliament E-Petition  https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=3136

Dedicated school bus service for Baringa High School students

TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Electors of the Division of Caloundra draws to the attention of the House the fact that a growing number of high school-aged students who reside in Baringa must travel to another high school in the electorate due to the Baringa State High School not opening until 2021. Currently there is no school bus service to collect students from Baringa and transport them to and from Meridan State College or other high schools. Students are required to walk up to 3km to the next closest school bus service. 

Your petitioners therefore request the House that a dedicated school bus service be created to safely transport students to and from Baringa to other high schools.

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Sunshine Coast Daily --> School run boost coming to hundreds of Coast families

MONTHS of lobbying has paid off for families in one of the region's fastest-growing communities.

A new daily school bus service is set to start up just for Bli Bli, servicing the Good Samaritan Catholic College and Bli Bli State School.

Good Samaritan principal Greg Myers and Bli Bli principal Gerard Quinn flagged the need for a dedicated service in the area.

Ninderry MP Dan Purdie thanked the principals for their efforts, and said he'd been able to work with both schools, Buslink and Translink to secure the service.

"Given the increase in the local population, and the official opening of the Good Samaritan Catholic College in Parklakes earlier this year, there was a real need for a school route to accommodate the rapidly growing community," Mr Purdie said.

Mr Purdie was hopeful the new services would help ease congestion during peak periods, and help hundreds of families moving to the region.

The new service is expected to start on Monday, September 9, and full details of the new route and fares were set to be released in the coming weeks.