Parents fear for children left at bus stops

Outer Link buses have left Kaitlyn Jones at the Ponsonby bus stop by her school up to three times a week, says her father, Gerwyn. Photo / Natalie Slade

Numerous complaints to council have gone unanswered, says 10-year-old's dad

Three times a week 10-year-old Kaitlyn Jones is left on the side of the road after school by the Outer Link bus because it's too full and adults appear to be given priority.

Kaitlyn is one of a number of people who have come forward to express their frustration with the bus service.

Kaitlyn's father, Gerwyn Jones, said the Outer Link bus often drove past his daughter because it was too full.

When it does pause at her Ponsonby Rd stop, adults are allowed on first, often filling the bus to capacity and forcing her to wait for the next one.

"It's like segregation - she's just a little 10-year-old girl and she's forced to stand on the side of the road," said Mr Jones.

Kaitlyn, one of the youngest girls at St Mary's College, started at the school in February. This year was the first time she has caught buses.

So far her experience trying to get home to Pt Chevalier has been less than pleasant as three days a week the buses are too overcrowded to pick her and her school friends up.

The most recent occasion was last Wednesday.

"And two weeks ago she was left waiting for an hour, so she rang me up and says, 'Dad, the buses have been driving past me, can you come pick me up?'

"And then I've got to leave work and go pick her up from school."

The service is meant to run every 15 minutes, which Mr Jones said rarely happened, but all of the later buses were often too full to pick up the students.

When she first started waiting for the bus, Kaitlyn started to get pretty anxious but now she's used to it and has made friends with the other St Mary's students in the same situation.

One of the things which concerns Mr Jones most about Kaitlyn being left is that it's not far from where a 12-year-old girl fended off a sex-pest by kicking him in the groin last year.

"For me, as a parent of a 10-year-old, it's always in the back of my mind that those sorts of people are in that area."

Mr Jones, a website consultant, said he and a number of other parents had brought up the issue with St Mary's College who told them they had to make a complaint to the council which ran the service.

"We've complained, lots of us, to the Auckland Council about this over and over again but we've not heard one thing, not one thing, back from them."

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said that so far there had been nine complaints about the Outer Link service - two in relation to the afternoon buses and seven in relation to morning peak services.

Ms Hunter said NZ Bus had not received any complaints specific to the College Hill bus stop or St Mary's.

"All complaints are fully investigated by NZ Bus. If capacity issues are identified on an ongoing basis, NZ Bus and Auckland Transport work together to evaluate options for the provision of additional capacity through larger-capacity buses or additional services," Ms Hunter said.

Auckland Transport will soon seek feedback on the three Link services. Subject to the consultation, timetables would be reviewed, Ms Hunter said.

She said NZ Bus did not have a policy of allowing adult passengers to board before children.

The Outer Link buses have capacity for 55 - 37 seated and 18 standing.

Mr Jones said he had become so frustrated by his daughter's situation that he was considering other options for the winter months - including paying almost double the $1.70 Outer Link fare for Kaitlyn to catch the school bus St Mary's College provided.

"We can't have her waiting outside in the rain for an hour."