A key advocacy group is calling for an increase of public school bus routes and services in the Point Cook area.
Point Cook Action Group president Karthick Thanigaimani said having more public school buses would have multiple benefits for students and families in the area.
“It would definitely help to reduce the peak hour traffic in the area, plus it would also avoid many parking related issues where people have to do drop offs around the school,” he said.
“Having more buses would also reduce a lot of burden from parents who have to drop them off at school.
“It will also help kids learn how to navigate public transport and be safer.”
As it stands in Wyndham, the state government provides several school bus services, including a service from Werribee South and Wyndham Harbour to Homestead Senior Secondary College and Alamanda K-9 College in Point Cook.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Planning said the government pays attention to demand for public school bus services.
“We operate dedicated school buses and route buses across the state, including in Wyndham, to get students to school,” the spokesperson said.
“We regularly monitor our network and make improvements to meet changes in demand.”
Star Weekly understands there are several criteria that the government uses to determine when it should supply public buses for students.
The department may consider diverting some route buses at school times to support students who are travelling more than three kilometres to their zoned government schools where the closest bus stop is further than 800 metres.
This is usually done when they determine there are gaps in the public transport network, or existing public transport services operate in ways that do not enable students to travel to school easily.
It is also understood that DTP will consider options to vary services on a case-by-case basis depending on factors including the availability of existing public transport, cost and impacts to any students using the service to travel to their nearest government school.
