STUDENTS from St Ives High School continue to face long commute times to and from school.
The P&C of St Ives High school commenced a campaign in 2020 due to the unacceptable commute times of students living beyond Hornsby, along with overcrowding issues at Gordon train station.
As you may have read over the past six months, The Post has consistently featured this story and will continue to do so until the necessary transport services are provided for the children of our community.
The P&C lobbied their local members of Parliament (Matt Kean, Member for Hornsby, Alister Henskens, Member for
Ku-ring-gai and Jonathon O’Dea,
Member for Davidson) for improved transport to and from the school to Gordon train station as there were not enough buses to get students from school to the train station in time for their connecting service.
As there is no co-educational government high school in the Hornsby Shire, students must travel out of the Hornsby LGA to either Ku-ring-gai High School, Turramurra High School or St Ives High School.
There was an expectation by parents who selected St Ives High School for their child, that transport would not be an issue given that St Ives High School is zoned for students as far north as Hornsby, Asquith, Mt Colah and Mt Ku-ring-gai.
The Post has received a statement from Transport for NSW on this matter:
"Transport for NSW together with the operator, Transdev, have implemented a range of service improvements to provide better connectivity to St Ives High School.
Additional dedicated bus services were provided in January 2022 to accommodate predicted growth in student enrolments at St Ives High School and the Intensive English Centre.
In January 2022, St Ives High School received an additional five dedicated school bus services which operate between Gordon Station each school day.
At the same time, one afternoon route 591 trip was also extended and now operates from St Ives High School towards Hornsby each school day.
Transport for NSW will continue to work closely with the operator Transdev to monitor demand on the new services recently implemented and will review and analyse the Opal Card data. Service levels will be adjusted as required."
In response, MP for Hornsby Matt Kean, recognized the improvements these changes have made, however he would like to see more consideration to accommodate St Ives High School students, commuting from his Hornsby electorate, who need to utilize the school before and after school hours. Mr Kean said he will continue to advocate for further changes to improve the commute those students still excessively impacted, which will not be picked up through Opal Card monitoring because they cannot use the bus.
The Post is asking why Transport for NSW are monitoring Opal card data.
Children are well known for forgetting to tap on and off, and more importantly the Opal card tap on / off facility on these bus services has been inaccessible to students.
A student attending the school stated “every morning I can’t tap on because machine is papered over and I can’t use the other machine as there’s a crowd of kids”.
Therefore, how useful is this data and why is it being relied upon to determine transport services to and from St Ives High School?
Given that the residential address of all school students is clearly known and available, the transport services should be in place for every student, including those that are currently driven to school by parents out of frustration with the shortfall in buses and trains.
Would it not be wiser to simply look at the request for Opal cards by studetns attending the school, rather than the 'actual' usage?
For many students, the journey home remains unpredictable, to the point that many families gave up organising after school activities because they did not know if their child would be home on time.
The Post appreciates the support and communication we receive from Matt Kean’s office on this important community matter.
How long will the students of St Ives High School have to wait for adequate transport services?