The Rocky View Schools transportation committee recently gave an update on transportation to the RVS Board of Trustees and it showed that, like everything else in the division, there are more students riding this year but they're doing it on fewer bus routes as the division looks for efficiencies that will save them money.  

Trustee Melyssa Bowen told the other members of the board that 411 more students are riding Rocky View buses than did in the last school year.  The transportation department has reduced the number of bus routes this year by 24.  Board Chair Fiona Gilbert says RVS is looking to be more efficient by filling the buses just a bit more.

"Last year, we had to make the decision to not allow ride-alongs so kids are only allowed to ride the bus that they're registered for.  In the past, we've had to keep some empty seats available for those kids as they make different choices.  For example, on their way home, they might ride a different bus so we had to keep a spot available for them.  This year because we weren't allowing students to do that, we can now fill a bus to complete capacity in order to find the most efficiencies and cost savings."

Gilbert says each route reduction saves RVS about $55,000 per year.

Last-minute registrations for the buses is something the transportation department must deal with each year and causes a fair amount of extra work for them.  This year over 1,000 students registered in the final two weeks of August, after the routes have been set.   Gilbert says it requires their transportation people to be very nimble and to work closely with their bus contractors.

"It does some reworking of the routes and they're even doing that now.  They're finding that there are more kids on this route because they have to just quickly make a decision to pick up this child on a new route they've no possibly reworked the route to make it more effective for everybody.  Usually, throughout the whole month of September, there are little tweaks to pick up times, tweaks to routes and the transportation department is working through that now."

When the new UCP government came into power in Alberta, they reversed the previous bus fee legislation put in by the previous NDP government which eliminated bus fees for students living 2.4 kilometres or further from school.  However, RVS made the decision on transportation fees in April, prior to that reversal.   Gilbert says, until the government releases it's budget next month, they don't have enough information to change RVS transportation fees.

"We're going to hold the government accountable to what they've said so far, that they are going to make education a priority and that a responsible government decision would be to maintain the previous levels of funding for this coming year.  Until we have an answer to that, we're not in a position to make any changes to our transportation portfolio."