David Gardiner

Journalist

The high school which has most of the students affected by a cancelled Douglas-to-Cairns school bus run remains hopeful another operator will take over the service in 2024, allowing students to finish their education without disruption.

Principal of St Monica’s College, Edna Galvin, told Newsport she has met with four other bus operators since notice of the service cancellation was given to schools and parents by FNQ Bus Lines in early November.

“We are hoping to resolve this because obviously those students are in the middle of their education,” Ms Galvin said.

“Very difficult to shift and they certainly don’t want to shift to a different school.”

Ms Galvin said she is still disappointed that notice of the cancellation of the vital service wasn’t given much earlier.

“The fact that everybody else seemed to know about it before the school or the parents – that was the first concern; why they didn’t tell us ages ago that that’s what they were planning because then we could have started doing what we’ve had to do since we found out, which is right at the end of the academic year.”

FNQ Bus Lines earlier gave Newsport its reasons for the way it communicated the decision, saying it had been reviewing the service’s viability for the past six months: “With less students enrolling each year, we waited to see if there were new 2023 enrolments but there were none,” FNQ Bus Lines’ Mark Johnson said at the time.

“We have given approximately 12 weeks’ notice to parents. We have left the decision as late as practicable to be certain of the numbers of students travelling in 2023,” he also said.

Ms Galvin said she is hopeful at least one of the four other bus operators will take up the cancelled run. Viability is the ongoing concern, she acknowledged, but said longer term certainty is the key for any new operator.

“The thing is it would be viable going forward if parents know there is a reliable service,” Ms Galvin said.

“The principal of St Augustin’s (boys’ college) and I are very much planning to go and visit the primary school to reassure them early next year that we do want a reliable bus service because we certainly don’t want to cut off all the students from that area coming to our schools.

“They have been coming for years and years and have been very good students so it’s not only about keeping the 10 or so that we have at the moment, but also guaranteeing the next lot of students coming.”

All four bus operators which have met with Ms Galvin are due to come back with their decisions about being able to replace the cancelled service by the end of this week.