A Kildare mother has described it as “utterly unacceptable” that her son has been removed from his long-standing school bus service.
Speaking to Gript this week, the mother said her son had travelled on the same bus for three years, but days before the new school term began was reassigned to a different route that has no contractor.
“If the bus my son has been on for three years is running, he should be on it,” she said.
“Not only is it an enormous inconvenience, but it is also deeply unfair and upsetting for him to be excluded from the bus he knows, where his friends are.”
She explained that other children who only recently joined the service appeared to have retained their seats while her son was excluded.
“It raises serious questions,” she said.
“Have Bus Éireann allocated places to new applicants while displacing existing students, instead of being upfront that the bus was already full?”
She added that families were struggling to get answers.
“The dedicated phone line cuts off after ten minutes on hold,” she said.
“The ‘Contact Us’ link provided does not work, and when I attempted to email Bus Éireann I first received a confirmation but then an undeliverable notification.”
Other parents in Newbridge have reported similar experiences, with some siblings split across different bus allocations. The mother said it felt like exclusion for the children left behind.
“They will watch their usual bus drive past without being allowed on,” she remarked.
Local councillors have now intervened. One Kildare councillor confirmed he had escalated the matter to both the Department of Education and Bus Éireann’s School Transport Team. He said he had highlighted cases where children had been moved to “new” routes that were later cancelled while original routes continued to operate.
“This is completely unacceptable and unfair,” the councillor said in correspondence with the mother.
“I have asked for urgent answers on why tickets were issued before routes were properly secured and why children were reassigned from long-standing routes to ones that collapsed.”
A WhatsApp group has been set up to keep affected parents informed.
Bus Éireann, in correspondence to the mother dated August 21st, acknowledged that “difficulties have arisen in some localities with a small number of contracted services” due to lack of driver or contractor availability. The company said some routes received “zero bids” despite repeated tenders.
Families were told they would receive an “Exceptional No Service Interim Grant” from the Department of Education to cover transport costs until a solution was found.
In a further update after the controversy, Bus Éireann confirmed that services on the reassigned route would resume on the first day of term following “a successful procurement process.”
However, the mother noted her son would still not be travelling with his usual friends as it is a different bus to the one he had used for years.
It’s come to light that a number of school bus routes nationwide will not operate at the start of the academic year due to shortages of drivers and contractors. The Department of Education said affected families would be eligible for temporary grants until routes are restored.
Similar complaints have also emerged elsewhere in the country. The Irish Independent reported that 11 students in Ballymacarbry, County Waterford, were denied seats on a school bus to Dungarvan despite having previously used the service, with councillors describing the allocation system as “ludicrous.”
Earlier this month, the Southern Star reported on changes to the Bus Éireann 236 route linking Cork city and Castletownbere, which left some commuters facing longer travel times after a service was cut without prior notice.