Stagecoach East has apologised after Perth High School pupils from the Carse of Gowrie were repeatedly left stranded in the freezing cold last week.
Technical problems and a higher than expected level of staff absence have been blamed for issues which left pupils both late for school and coming home.
A Carse of Gowrie councillor said the number of school buses breaking down in such a short space of time was “completely unacceptable” .
Last week’s string of lengthy delays left pupils waiting in sub-zero temperatures for their school transport. The issues included a bus breaking down in St Madoes on Thursday – leaving kids stranded for 45 minutes waiting for a replacement – as well as buses being late by about 40 minutes on Friday, both in taking pupils to school and home again.
Perth and Kinross Council has met with Stagecoach East to discuss the issues and told the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Stagecoach – and any bus operator – is fined each time a service is late or cancelled.
Stagecoach insisted the safety and comfort of its passengers was the company’s “highest priority”.
A spokesperson for Stagecoach East Scotland said: “We sincerely apologise to the pupils and parents affected by delayed school journeys last week to Perth High School.
“We faced a number of challenges, including staff sickness and extremely cold temperatures impacting the reliability of our fleet. Where school journeys were affected, a replacement vehicle was dispatched as soon as possible.
“Our team in Perth have preventative measures in place to minimise the impact of the cold temperatures. The safety and comfort of our passengers remains our highest priority.
“We operate 43 school contracts each day from our Perth depot and outside of weather-related challenges, these generally operate without issue. Where issues do occur, we have an agreed communication procedure in place with Perth and Kinross Council and the school, to ensure parents and pupils are kept up to date.”
Perth and Kinross Council said Stagecoach had agreed to update how it responds when school buses break down.
A PKC spokesperson said: “We understand the importance of safe and reliable school transport to pupils and their families.
“Officers met Stagecoach to discuss issues affecting school transport services, which have been attributed to higher than expected levels of staff absences and technical issues affecting electric and hybrid vehicles caused by the colder weather.
“We agreed with Stagecoach their processes will be updated so their control room staff have an updated guidance on how to respond when school buses break down.
“Financial penalties are imposed when operational issues mean a service is late or cancelled.
The delays last week – which left children having to wait in the freezing cold – were the latest in a long list of issues with Perth High School transport for the Carse of Gowrie.
In March 2022 a Stagecoach double-decker school bus caught fire on the A90; last May a faulty window led to pupils having to be transferred on to another bus and various other technical failures resulted in pupils having to get off their bus and stand at the side of the busy dual carriageway.
Carse of Gowrie ward councillors received numerous complaints last week from parents, who are growing increasingly exasperated with the unreliable school transport.
Cllr Angus Forbes described the situation as “completely unacceptable”.
The Conservative councillor said: “I had a number of complaints last week about the reliability of the service and I have passed those to the council’s public transport unit who control the contracts for school buses.
“I have also been in touch with Stagecoach myself about the issues, I have had an initial response but I await more detail from both Stagecoach and the council. I hope to meet Stagecoach about this and other bus matters in the Carse next week.
“It’s completely unacceptable for so many breakdowns to occur in such a short space of time and on the same route especially with prelims just around the corner.”
The prelim fortnight for Perth High School pupils in S5/S6 got under way on Monday, January 13.
Labour Carse of Gowrie councillor Alasdair Bailey said: “I’ve had a lot of contact from parents who are rightly angry that the buses from the Carse to Perth High were so unreliable in the first week back at school. I’m therefore reassured to hear that the school transport team are onto these issues. I’m also pleased to hear that the council can apply financial penalties because hopefully that makes the school services something that Stagecoach will see fit to invest more into in the future.
“As a council, we have to offer reliable school transport or the problems of traffic in our town and city centres will only get worse with people thinking they need to drive their kids to school to ensure that they get an uninterrupted education.”