Students scrambling after hundreds of school bus runs cancelled

Some Ottawa families are worried about how their childrenwill 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) saidithad to cancel 300 bus runs serving the two English-language school boardsbecause itcouldn't hire enough drivers. That leaves roughly 7,600 students scramblingto find alternativeways to school.

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

OSTA is handing out OC Transpo vouchers toaffected intermediate and high school studentsin order for those buses tobe used for elementary students.

Smith Fenton, 12,is one of the students who will need to take OC Transpo. He will be starting Grade 7atGlen 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 angryand 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 himthrough how to find his stops andhow to use the transit app.While there are dedicated OC Transpo routes for high schools,Fentonhas toget on a standardOC Transpo bus andget off at a stop nine minutes away from his middle school.

"I didn't think thata12-year-old would have to navigate this,"says Currie.

Some students may be stuck with online learning, says OSTA

Vicky Kyriaco, OSTAgeneralmanager, says they had to cancel the runsafter they were unable to reachan 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 isattracting enough bus drivers.

"I think that drivers expect to be paid more," saidKyriaco. "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 $20an 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.