Bus timing issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told my child to let the driver know they missed the bus this morning to clarify whether the bus came super early or super late. The driver has been really nice so I wondered if it was a substitute.

Are drivers supposed to wait for their scheduled pick up time? The bus route says our stop is a 7:05 pick up. How often do I need to report when it picks up befofe 7?

I'd report every time. 7:05 means 7:05. Not 6:56 or 6:48 or 7:18. We had a lateness thing at our stop last year and we called repeatedly until it was fixed. Don't bother the school: if the issue is the bus and not your kid, call the depot. Traffic makes buses arrive late. Drivers make buses leave early, and it's not ok.

[Anonymous]

My elementary school student is late every day. No breakfast at all (free breakfast for his school) because he is so late and he's late for specials every day because the bus has 16 stops and the driver doesn't get enough time to get them to school on time.

The bus depot is aware and "monitoring". Hmm it's been over two weeks and they are late every day. What are they monitoring? It's just bus depot speak for we don't plan to do anything.

You have to be a huge pain to them to get their attention.

[Anonymous]

What is going on with the buses this year? my kid has been 30 minutes late arriving home at least 4 times in this barely started academic year, and the bus has also been late for pickup in the AM. today my kid didn't get picked up until 25 minutes after the scheduled time and missed a chunk of their first class. anyone know who to complain to? or just raise it with the school?

[Anonymous]

Our bus is consistently 10 minutes early from the posted time. After missing it twice I send kid out the door that much earlier (this is to a CES magnet). It sucks all around. Today it came “on time” so she was at the bus stop for almost 20 minutes

[Anonymous]

Traffic has been really weird this week. I drive my child and have left at essentially the same time each day (within 3 minutes) on the same route, and my round trip has varied wildly. Tuesday and Wednesday were particularly bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my child to let the driver know they missed the bus this morning to clarify whether the bus came super early or super late. The driver has been really nice so I wondered if it was a substitute.

Are drivers supposed to wait for their scheduled pick up time? The bus route says our stop is a 7:05 pick up. How often do I need to report when it picks up befofe 7?

I'd report every time. 7:05 means 7:05. Not 6:56 or 6:48 or 7:18. We had a lateness thing at our stop last year and we called repeatedly until it was fixed. Don't bother the school: if the issue is the bus and not your kid, call the depot. Traffic makes buses arrive late. Drivers make buses leave early, and it's not ok.

Here's the list of staff at the bus depot and the phone number.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/depots/

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what is going on--my kid has been picked up/dropped off more than 20 minutes late at least 5 times already, and we're not even one month into the school year.

[Anonymous]

My DS said that his bus driver told him and other riders that they need to come to their stop 20 minutes early from now on because they arrive to school late. 20 min early makes his trip to school 45 min

[Anonymous]

My kid was late to first period last Friday and on Monday because the bus pickup was 20 minutes late both days. This does not seem to be improving and now we’re going to start getting into the rainy, cold weather where you really don’t want your kid standing at a bus stop for an extra 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Again, folks: call the depot. They do recalibrate routes in response to chronic delays, and they do also provide instructions and feedback to drivers who are making counterproductive choices about departure times. Drivers don't get to redo their own routes. It has to come from the depot because it has to be recorded because it has to be consistent. Call the depot every time a bus departs early, and every time it is extremely late unless there is a clear mitigating event (like an emergency road closure or a breakdown). They can't make useful changes without data, and that data comes from us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, folks: call the depot. They do recalibrate routes in response to chronic delays, and they do also provide instructions and feedback to drivers who are making counterproductive choices about departure times. Drivers don't get to redo their own routes. It has to come from the depot because it has to be recorded because it has to be consistent. Call the depot every time a bus departs early, and every time it is extremely late unless there is a clear mitigating event (like an emergency road closure or a breakdown). They can't make useful changes without data, and that data comes from us.

I called twice this week. Both times I was told to call back when a supervisor was around. I did finally make a report which hopefully someone will react to.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. My kid’s bus driver told the kids to come 15 min earlier. I thought this was an official change but just checked and the new schedule hasn’t been updated on the MCPS site. Didn’t even occur to me that the bus driver might have decided on his own to change the schedule…