14 Mar 2018
The following information is provided by Busways, but it also is relevant to Newcastle Buses:
Does your child catch a school bus? Help them keep it!
As the bus operator that providing your child's school bus services, we're asking for your help getting your child to use their Opal card on every bus trip.
Since the introduction of the School Opal card in 2016, school bus patronage data has significantly dropped. This is not reflected in the number of students actually travelling on our buses for various reasons a large number of students are consistently not using their Opal cards as they should be.
Opal data gathered by tapping on and off is used by transport planners and service schedulers to design the bus network that best serves the community utilising the resources available.
If students don't tap on and off then school bus services will appear underutilised and may be considered for cancellation based on low passenger numbers.
Please help us reinforce the message that tapping on and off every bus journey with an Opal card is essential to travel on the bus. This will ensure school services continue to be planned for the students that use it, providing the journey to school your children depend on.
To help us achieve this, please talk with your child:
- Ask them if they tap on and off the bus with their Opal card.
- If they do, congratulate them for doing the right thing and talk about why it's important.
- If they sometimes don't or never do, ask them why.
- Are they confused about why they have to? Talk about why it's important, and that every tap tells the bus planners that the bus is needed.
- Do they forget? Help them find a way to remember, such as getting into the habit of getting their Opal card out as soon as they arrive at the bus stop or bus line.
- Is their Opal card at the bottom of their bag? Help find a handier place to keep it.
- Are they influenced by friends or peers that don't tap? Talk about how they like to travel on the bus with their friends and how tapping is what keeps the service running.
- Have they lost their Opal card? To order a new Opal card visit www.opal.com.au.
If there's another reason that you'd like to discuss with Busways, please contact us at infoline@busways.com.au or call our customer service team on 9497 1878 to talk to us. We are happy to listen and do what we can to help your child feel comfortable using their Opal card.
Thank you for helping us to best serve your school community.