Cost Of School Bus Services

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 8

Cost Of School Bus Services

About £222,200 was spent each year by the Canterbury Education Board in the operation of transport services for schoolchildren, said the secretary-manager (Mr W. P. Spencer) in a report to the board yesterday.

Mr Spencer said the board’s 258 daily services ran a total of 11,148 miles a day to take 9460 children to and from school. This cost £llll a day making the average cost for each child 2s 4.2 d. The average distance for each child conveyed was 1.18 miles. Mr Spencer said 99 State buses were used and 26 teacher-drivers. The figures did not include 23 taxi services operating in

Christchurch, Greymouth, Kaiapoi and Timaru for up to 150 handicapped children at a daily cost of £44 Ils 6d. There were also 170 manual training services operating either weekly or fortnightly, catering for 7400 children.

"I have reason to believe that the average cost a child, which has gradually increased from 2s 3.7 d in 1961, is the highest for any board in New Zealand,” said Mr Spencer. “The number of services operated by State buses is, if not greater in total, certainly greater in proportion than for any other board. “These items reflect the wider sparsely populated districts covered by school transport in this board’s area, and the lack of local operators, which in turn gives rise to the unstable nature of a number of services and the need for constant supervision.”