Public Schools Branch reviewing routes as more children take the bus

The Public Schools Branch says it's constantly reviewing its bus routes as the school year evolves.

"[We] have looked at the routes, tried to improve some of the routes because of COVID and also just for greater efficiencies, added some buses to the fleet as well to help with that," said Norbert Carpenter, acting director of the Public Schools Branch. The board of directors met Wednesday. 

The PSB had spare buses which are now being used to help address routing issues.

"The ridership has come up a little bit from the start of the year. A lot of parents drove, you know, at the beginning of the year, they drove their child to school ... now the ridership has come up a little bit."

Carpenter said currently buses might have 45 to 50 students on them, which is lower than in previous years, but those numbers are starting to rise. Carpenter said the goal is to have a maximum of two children to a seat.

"When we're not seeing that, or we're concerned we can't maintain that level, then we do need to look at the routes again and see if we can improve that," he said. 

The PSB has noticed that picking up and dropping off students is taking more time, and it is trying to adjust routes to make them more efficient.

"There's a little more holding students in the morning, in the afternoon. So we did realize that some bus routes were problematic in the sense that the children were arriving maybe a few minutes too late," said Carpenter. 

'Recruiting more drivers'

Carpenter said there is still a need to build up the complement of drivers. Five have been hired.

"We do have enough drivers at the moment. But, you know, we're in challenging times and sickness does pop up and leaves do pop up," he said.

The training facility used by the PSB has had some limitations because of COVID-19, said Carpenter. In order to keep up with the PSB's demand for drivers the school board is looking at training drivers in-house. 

"We have driver coaches, but we also have a member of our transportation team who is a certified trainer. And so we're developing some curriculum to be able to fill the void if the company that we use is not able to get bus drivers out to us fast enough," he said.

More from CBC P.E.I.