One Boston School Bus Was Late 150+ Times Last Year, Costing Riders Nearly a Week of Class

Featured photo: A yellow school bus in Newton, Massachusetts (file photo; not a Boston Public Schools route). Photo: 4300streetcar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

One Boston Public Schools bus route arrived after the morning bell more than 150 times last school year, costing its riders up to 1,933 minutes of class, or roughly a week of school, according to a WBUR analysis of district bus data published Monday, Nov. 2. The route, HS510, serves the James Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain.

WBUR obtained the data through a public records request. It covers morning delays only and does not include the thousands of times buses never showed up, the station reported. For more Boston Public Schools news, see our schools page.

Which schools saw the most late buses

Nearly three dozen routes serve the Curley school, which enrolls 955 students from pre-K through eighth grade. Together, those routes were late almost 1,200 times, with delays from a few minutes to 86 minutes, WBUR found. More than a dozen routes districtwide logged more than 1,000 total minutes of delay, and individual delays ran as long as 89 minutes.

At the Thomas Edison Elementary School in Brighton, buses on 18 routes were late 514 times. On one Edison route, B006, riders lost 205 minutes in the first week of school, including a 77-minute delay on the first day. WBUR also found:

• HS387 (Richard J. Murphy K-8, Dorchester): riders arrived about 27 minutes late on average from Sept. 9 to Sept. 23.
• HS262 (Warren-Prescott K-8, Charlestown): delays recurred all year, averaging 23 minutes a day from April 16 to May 7.
• About a dozen dates in March, April and May had roughly 100 or more late buses districtwide.

Schools with at least one delay of 87 minutes or more included Match Community Day Charter School, Mildred Avenue K-8, Michael Perkins Elementary, William Blackstone Elementary, Rafael Hernandez Elementary, KIPP Academy Boston, Thomas Edison Elementary and John Eliot K-8.

How the bus contract measures on-time service

The district’s bus contractor, Transdev, runs about 600 routes and 750 buses serving more than 18,000 riders, including charter school and special-needs students, WBUR reported. Its $630 million contract runs from July 2023 to June 2028 and sets a target of at least 90% on-time morning arrivals. The district reported a 91% average last school year.

Transdev earned a $27,300 bonus for reaching 92% or better in April, May and June, and the city fined the company $400,500 for missed or failed trips from March through June, according to WBUR. Boston Public Schools did not respond to WBUR’s request for comment on last year’s delays.

The new figures cover last school year. This year’s first month, the district reported buses ran 86% on time, as we reported in BPS buses ran 86% on time in the first month.

What parents and councilors say

Ryan Berard, a West Roxbury parent of a first grader at Curley, told WBUR the family has had “repeated, basically daily, delays.” He estimated his daughter’s bus has dropped her off about half an hour after the 8:30 a.m. bell about 15 times this year.

City Councilor Erin Murphy called the lost learning “weeks of educational time missed,” WBUR reported. The City Council has scheduled a hearing to review bus performance and any needed corrective action. Follow it with the rest of our Boston local news and Boston City Hall coverage.

Sources

• WBUR: Late buses, lost time: Boston students at a dozen schools miss thousands of class minutes
• The Boston Report: BPS Buses Ran 86% On Time in First Month, Missing the 95% Goal Again