PARENTS will have to pay up to $180 for their children to travel on school buses next year, ending more than 40 years of free travel for school children in NSW.
And there are fears local bus runs will be cut if passenger numbers drop.
Yearly payments of $90 per high school student, and $45 per primary school student, will start next year.
The fees will be capped at $180 per family.
The NSW Government will not scrap the concessions completely, but the new levy to be announced today is expected to save the cash-strapped government about $33 million next year.
School bus travel costs the government about $470 million per year and today’s mini-budget is in response to the Government’s poor financial position.
Melville High School principal Robert Bourke said 700 students, a majority of the school’s population, catch one of 14 buses and will be affected by today’s decision.
A spokesman for Cavanagh’s bus company said yesterday that the company would have no option but to reduce services, with fewer students expected to travel by bus following the introduction of the levy next year.
The spokesman said the bus industry was in turmoil after bus companies were offered new contracts recently.
Regional NSW would be hit hardest by the changes, the spokesman said, because of differences between contracts for city and country operators.
He said a metropolitan bus company is paid the cost of providing the service plus a percentage of the profit, while bus companies in regional areas are paid by a different system, which meant they received less than city companies.
Costs include paying a driver, fuel and maintenance expenses.
“We’re getting squeezed all the time,” he said, adding the government had not consulted the bus industry about the changes.
Before any details were revealed about today’s announcement, Darryl Mellish, executive director of BusNSW, the association that represents all private bus operators, said they were concerned about the impact on bus companies.
“BusNSW is concerned that in addition to the impact on families many bus operators could be forced out of business and country services will need to be slashed unless any change is made in consultation with the bus industry, schools and parents,” he said.
“I cannot rule out any form of action from the private bus industry should the Government introduce measures that will threaten the future of these essential services.”
The new levy is less than half the amount paid by Victorian parents, which Treasurer Eric Roozendaal referred to last week as a possible model NSW could follow.
Victorian parents pay $391 per year and Oxley MP and deputy opposition leader Andrew Stoner last week said a Government leak to the Sydney media suggested NSW parents could be paying a similar amount.
The Oxley MP has been collecting signatures in a petition opposing the levy on school bus travel.
He told The Argus yesterday that he would table some of those signatures in parliament today in protest against the new charges.
“I don’t think we should just roll over, lie down and cop it,” Mr Stoner said.
“I know a lot of families who can’t afford $180,” he said, adding that the levy came at the start of the school year when there were other school expenses and Christmas bills to pay.
He added it was double whammy after the Government last week announced it would cut the $50 back to school allowance that families had received for each child.
“It’s nothing short of a tax on families that can’t afford it,” Mr Stoner said about the school bus fee.
Students are currently issued with travel passes entitling them to free bus travel to and from school, if they live more than 3km from their school.
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