Students scrambling after hundreds of school bus runs cancelled

Some Ottawa families are worried about how their children will get to class after the company in charge of busing cancelled hundreds of runs just days before the start of the school year.

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) said it had to cancel 300 bus runs serving the two English-language school boards because it couldn't hire enough drivers. That leaves roughly 7,600 students scrambling to find alternative ways to school.

According to OSTA, a route can have multiple runs due to staggered start times of schools. 

OSTA is handing out OC Transpo vouchers to affected intermediate and high school students in order for those buses to be used for elementary students.

Smith Fenton, 12, is one of the students who will need to take OC Transpo. He will be starting Grade 7 at Glen Cairn Public School in Kanata on Tuesday. His mother, Sarah Currie, says she's worried about him navigating the transit system, which can often be unreliable. 

"Initially I was pretty angry and then I just kind of went into like, mom problem solving mode," Currie says.

Since finding out about the cancellations on Monday, Currie says Fenton hasn't had much time to walk him through how to find his stops and how to use the transit app. While there are dedicated OC Transpo routes for high schools, Fenton has to get on a standard OC Transpo bus and get off at a stop nine minutes away from his middle school.

"I didn't think that a 12-year-old would have to navigate this," says Currie. 

Some students may be stuck with online learning, says OSTA

Vicky Kyriaco, OSTA general manager, says they had to cancel the runs after they were unable to reach an agreement with one of the 10 bus companies serving the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Ottawa Catholic School Board. 

While OSTA is trying to redesign routes in order to accommodate more students, Kyriaco says their main challenge is attracting enough bus drivers. 

"I think that drivers expect to be paid more," said Kyriaco. "If the funding doesn't meet those needs, though, there's not much we can do."

While some students are able to take public transportation, students living in areas OC Transpo doesn't serve "really have absolutely no way to get in," Kyriaco said. 

Kyriaco says some rural students may have to temporarily resort to online learning if they can't get enough bus drivers. 

Wages for posted driver positions ranged from $14 to $20 an hour on driveyellow.ca, a website that advertises jobs available at OSTA-partnered bus companies, as of Tuesday. All advertised positions were part-time, ranging from 14 to 35 hours of work per week.