Bus company for francophone school board has a communication problem, parent says

Complaints are continuing to roll in aboutthe company that buses students atNova Scotia's francophoneschool board after one busin Halifax was4 hours late dropping kids homeearlier thisweek.

While the latest incident involved students atcole Mer et Mondein south-end Halifax, a parent of children who go to other Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) schools said there have been ongoing communication issues with the bus companyTransco.

"I'm frustrated as a parentbecause these are our children, and our children are supposed to get from point A to point B in a safe manner," Amissa Singh, who has children attending both cole Beaubassinand cole secondaire du Sommet, told Radio-Canada in an interview on Thursday.

"Right now, there is a lack of communication with parents and we are unable to get ahold of Transco as a whole for any issues regarding our children's transportation."

Singh said her own children went through a lot of uncertainty last year with the school bus.

"Uncertainty with when they were going to get to school, how they were going to get to school, if they were going to show up late and be embarrassed or if I had to drive them," Singh said.

"We had to shuffle on the drop of a dime to figure out how we were going to get our kids to school on time so that they don't miss their education."

The formerpresident of the Fdration des parents acadiens de la Nouvelle-cossetold Radio-Canada in an interview in French thatwhat happened on Monday wasthe latest example in a long history of service failures with Transco.

Caroline Arsenault said the lack of communication with familiesis unacceptable. She said parents calling Trancso directly get a voicemail and no responses.

Drivers are not properly supported,parent says

Transcoa subsidiary of First Student, which operates more than 900 vehicles in Quebec did not respondto a request for comment from Radio-Canada on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the company said it regretted the"inconvenience and concern" regarding the 4-hour bus delay on Monday. It said it was working with CSAP to review what led to the delay and how to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Singh said a lot of parents want to take out their frustration on the bus drivers because those are their first point of contact with Transco. But she said shebelieves it's not the fault of drivers, as they are not supported by the company or properly trained,and are not confident when put on routes they don't know.

Bus tracking system improvements coming, CSAP says

CSAP told familiesin a letter Thursday that it is working to improve the bus tracking system and that it would keep parents updated on its progress.

Arsenault saidshe's not sure improvements in the bus tracking system addressthe concerns families have with the overall lack of communication withTransco.

Transco is one of three bus providers for the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE). In a statement, an HRCEspokesperson said all threehave GPS systems on board.

Families can log on to a web portal calledBusPlanner where they can view the location of a student's bus starting 30 minutes before the beginning of a run and up until 30 minutes after it is scheduled to end.

"Our transportation team has the ability to track every bus at all times and phones are staffed at all times that buses have students on board, including when we experience lengthy end-of-day delays, such as snow storms or significant traffic issues,"Lindsey Bunin, the spokesperson for the Halifax regional centre, wrote in an email.

When there is a delay, Bunin said notifications are sent out through BusPlannerto subscriber accounts, which all families have if theirchild is assigned to one of the centre'sbus routes.

Bunin said delays are also posted to the BusPlanner alert page, emailed to parents that have accounts and textedto those that have added a mobile phone number to theiraccount.