Question & Answer – School Bus Services

Ms WEBB question to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE and TRANSPORT, Mr VINCENT

Tuesday, 24 March 2026

My question is regarding the matter of the provision of reliable school bus services. This is one I put to you, which you took on notice recently. Following the recent successful two-year campaign by a Gagebrook teenager to secure Friday bus services for his journey to school in Bridgewater, Minister, is it government policy to provide reliable five-day bus services on school routes? Can you please detail how many current school bus routes which primarily service state public schools do not have a reliable five-day-week bus service, but instead require students to find alternative transport options for at least one day per week? Lastly, can you please explain why it is that there are school bus routes which do not provide a reliable five-day-per-week service for school students?

ANSWER

Thank you for the question and we have a bit of information here. Before that, I’d just like to welcome you to the Chamber. It’s always good to see guests here and I hope we don’t do anything wrong in our proceedings that you can chastise the President on later.

The Department of State Growth contracts with approximately 90 bus operators to deliver over 300 school bus and specialist school bus services. The service eligibility guidelines for school bus service, established under the Passenger Transport Services Act 2011, determine when services are to be contracted and how school bus routes and timetables are designed.

State Growth works closely with bus operators and the Department for Education, Children and Young People to monitor student capacity and demand on both the school and general access school bus network and various contracts where appropriate. School bus
services are designed to provide regular services within intake areas, primarily for public school students on weekdays during school terms.

In addition to school bus services, State Growth contracts general access services across the state. These are designed to provide services for the broader community to travel for work, school and recreation. Metro Tasmania operates both dedicated school bus services and general access services, some of which connect with schools and provide a transport option for students.

The particular service in your question is one of the latter and is not a dedicated school bus service. Weekday general access services provided by Metro currently operate according to Monday-Thursday and Friday timetables. The origin of this difference is there are more services operated by Metro on Friday evenings.

However, since Metro introduced temporary service adjustments in August 2023 in response to driver shortages, some Friday services were suspended even though they otherwise operated Monday-Thursday. Since August 2023, Metro has returned some suspended trips within their existing operational capacity.

We are working towards more consistent Monday to Friday timetables as part of phase 2 of the Greater Hobart Bus Network Review. Thank you, and thank you to the member.

Ms WEBB question to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE and TRANSPORT, Mr VINCENT

[2.37 p.m.]

Thank you, Mr President. Just to follow up on that, I thank the Deputy Leader for his answer. I don’t think it went to the intent of my question, though, because the natural flow-on from my question is for those routes that you’ve identified then as general access routes, but which are also purposed for school bus pickups on a regular and understood basis.

Are there any other of those that remain only Monday to Thursday then? Have you done an audit subsequent to young Jack’s advocacy in Bridgewater? Have you done an audit to see if there are any of those known general access/school bus services that are only four days a week?

ANSWER

Thank you, Mr President, and thank you for clarification on that point. I do not know of the audit. I will follow up on that just to see if there is a specific number. There are no other letters or emails before me that I’m aware of at the moment on questioning those runs, but I will double check and come back to you on that.

Ms Webb – I appreciate that, thank you

Answers to Questions – School Buses

Thursday 26 March 2026

I have a little more to add to one of the questions on the buses – a bit more information coming available regarding the Monday to Thursday versus Friday. There are eight trips in Greater Hobart which operate Monday to Thursday but not on Fridays and which pass a school close to the time that school starts in the morning. However, compared with Jack Triffitt’s situation, all these services have alternative options available for students. In many cases, there are dedicated school services as well as other general access services that students could catch either before or after. That clarifies it a bit more.

Ms Webb – Thank you, I appreciate the follow-up.

View Meg’s Question and the Minister’s response received on the 23rd of March 2026, below.