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Local Catholic schools return to shared bus service

Catholic school students in Parry Sound-Muskoka are back on shared bus service.

The changes are effective the morning of Monday November 15th. Wheelchair Accessible Transit (WAT) will still provide dedicated service to Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) schools in the area, but many stops will now be serviced by shared routes.

St. Mary’s, Monsignor Michael O’Leary, and St. Dominic are on shared routes with the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB), with service provided by Hammond Transportation and Campbell Bus Lines. Students at St. Peter the Apostle share routes with Nipissing-Parry Sound Student Transportation Services.

“This was just our way of accommodating our families, because the service they were getting was not meeting their needs, and not meeting our needs,” says Allen Morrison, SMCDSB’s Controller of Planning, Facilities & Student Transportation Services. “We’ve spent the last few months looking for solutions, and it’s been a very labour intensive process trying to collaborate on different ideas. We’re just happy we’re here today, and that we finally have a solution in place for them.”

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Until this week, WAT was the sole provider for the four Catholic schools. With a province-wide bus driver shortage, many students faced long delays, some up to six hours per day, as well as missed pickups. Although routes were consolidated in September to address those delays, the problem persisted.

The SMCDSB announced the changes in a letter to parents on November 10th. Originally scheduled to take effect on November 22nd, the changes came a week early.

“Hopefully it means our students are able to get to school on time and not miss any class time, and hopefully it means parents can rely on transportation again, get to their jobs on time” says Morrison. “[Kids] can participate in after school jobs, or extracurriculars. This was having a major impact on our families, we always appreciated that, and we’re just hoping this means they can return to a more normal lifestyle.”

John Barbato, CEO of the Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium, which coordinates bus service for the SMCDSB, says they’re thankful for people’s patience.

“We apologize, and we appreciate their patience, and we hope for continued reliable service as we move forward,“ says Barbato, addressing parents. “We’ll continue to work diligently to make that happen.”

Scott Hammond, Director of Operations for Hammond Transportation, says it seems to be working so far.

“We got those students back on shared routes, and it’s only been day one, but it seems to have alleviated a lot of stress for some people,” says Hammond.

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