Big bus, no fuss

Jake Shrimpton, Tori Boutcher, Abigail Rook and Harjot Singh have been utilising St Peter’s College’s new school bus. 94260 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS

ST PETER’S College has set the wheels in motion with its own solution to a lack of bus services for students.
With no help from the State Government in sight, the school recently purchased a new school bus to help get students to and from its new Cranbourne East campus, located in the Selandra Rise estate.
St Peter’s College marketing officer April Hampson said no public transport serviced the new housing development, situated on Berwick Cranbourne Road, let alone their school within it.
“It soon became evident with the opening of our state-of-the-art east campus that we needed to formulate a plan to help parents who were carrying the burden of getting their students to and from the MacKillop Drive campus,” she said.
“We have been told there is no funding available at present to put on a school bus into the area either.
“With no help in sight from government, we felt we needed to ease the burden on parents getting their students to and from school.
Last year, the college used its minibus to start the initial run from High Street, Cranbourne out to the new campus in the morning and back again after school.
Ms Hampson said that was not enough this year.
“We very quickly needed to expand the pick-up and drop off-route, and by the end of the year it was obvious that we needed a much bigger bus, after increasing the run to twice before and after school.”
The new bus now undertakes two runs in the morning and another two in the afternoon.
The State Government did not respond to the News’ inquiries before going to press.