Some Manawatū routes will be axed and others modified. Photo: 123rf.com
- Parent cautiously welcomes news that funded school buses are to stay for now
- Services between the Manawatū village of Ashhurst and Palmerston North to continue next year
- Long-term future in hands of regional council
- Ministry of Education has cancelled and redesigned other routes.
A parent in the Manawatū village of Ashhurst is cautiously welcoming news that buses carrying teens to secondary school in Palmerston North will not be scrapped next year.
But the exact shape of future services is still up in the air until regional councillors decide what to do.
"It's better than nothing, but it's still not ideal," said Chris Love, one of the parents who have led the charge to keep the bus services between the village and the city, 15 kilometres away.
The Ministry of Education has reviewed funded bus routes around the country, including 25 taking children to secondary schools in Palmerston North.
There is a primary school, but no secondary college in Ashhurst. The closest state secondary school is Freyberg High School, but children in the village have traditionally taken ministry-funded buses to other schools around the city, including Boys' High and Girls' High.
The ministry confirmed to RNZ today that some Manawatū routes will be axed and others modified, but the ones from Ashhurst to Palmerston North will stay, at least initially.
The criteria for ministry-funded buses are that they must take children to the nearest school, which must be at least about five kilometres away, and there can not be access to public transport.
There are public buses between Palmerston North and Ashhurst, but not enough seats nor services to absorb the more than 200 children on ministry-funded services. Horizons Regional councillors have previously voted not to put on extra services.
However, the ministry has now confirmed it is funding seven buses from Ashhurst to Palmerston North high schools on a transitional basis from the beginning of school next year. One funded service, to Longburn Adventist College, a Christian school, is guaranteed to stay.
Ministry hautū (leader) for operations and integration Sean Teddy said Manawatū services had been reviewed, and changes would be made for the seven services that presently ran from Ashhurst for "ineligible students".
"The current Ashhurst school bus services will be replaced with a number of transitional bus services from Ashhurst to specific schools in Palmerston North.
"These services will remain in place while we work with Horizons Regional Council on a long-term solution for Ashhurst. We expect to provide a further update on these services in term 1, 2026."
The matter will again be discussed by Horizons councillors at its next meeting later this month.
In the previous school holidays, Love and other parents formed a picket line in Ashhurst to protest the change.
She told RNZ on Wednesday she was grateful for the services continuing, but the lack of certainty was a worry.
She had one child who took the bus to secondary school in Palmerston North, and a younger one who hoped to.
"Any bus is better than no bus, because we were facing 293 kids without any way to get to school apart from public buses and parent and caregiver vehicles," she said.
"At the end of the day it's a bit of a win because we're at least going to have a bus."
If the services were scrapped entirely parents had looked into providing a user-pays service, but the costs for that could have reached $10 per student per day, according to one quote.
They still faced the possibility of some form of user-pays, but nothing was set in stone, Love said.
She had previously told RNZ fares would be unaffordable for some, and parents might not be able to provide transport.
She also worried that some people would have to pull out their children from their current schools.
The ministry has cancelled four funded Manawatū services to Palmerston North schools, from Newbury and Bunnythorpe, Sanson, Tangimoana and Foxton.
Two have been merged with other routes. Fifteen are redesigned.
The ministry said information about services nationwide would be confirmed soon.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
