They are winding up their company and the school bus runs are being taken over by Ritchies Coachlines. It is believed some of their drivers will work for Ritchies.
East Otago Coachlines has an enviable safety record with only one minor accident with a minibus, at a time when no passengers were on board.
In 1969 Mr and Mrs McLew purchased a taxi and a school bus run on Horse Range Rd and Switchback Rd north of Palmerston. The taxi service had exciting moments, Mrs McLew recalled.
On occasions it was used to take expectant mothers to the Queen Mary Maternity hospital in Dunedin from the Palmerston Cottage Hospital.
Later, Mr McLew's brother Eric, who had previously operated the Pigroot bus service, took over the rural delivery and taxi service and East Otago Coachways began its first major school bus run, from Morrisons and Dunback to Palmerston.
The East Otago High School opened at Palmerston in 1969 and as the roll grew quickly, East Otago Coachways grew with it. Bus runs were added to Karitane, the Kilmog, past Dunback up the Pigroot, and to Waikouaiti. The Moeraki school bus run was taken over some years later and extended to Hampden.
Services were contracted by the then Otago Education Board, which would pay only for one service a day from the Pigroot to East Otago High School and return. This meant that the bus had to be left in the open at the end of the Pigroot run.
The Palmerston based bus driver travelled out to his school bus in the morning and back to Palmerston at night in an old Ford van.
In winter, the bus was often "frozen up" in the morning and had to be towed with a farmer's tractor to start it. The run to Palmerston was mostly downhill so the bus did not warm up along the way, much to the discomfort of pupils.
Mr McLew invited an Otago Education Board Transport officer to travel on the morning school bus trip from the Pigroot to Palmerston. Mr McLew was dressed warmly, including an overcoat, while the Education Board official arrived in a suit. It was an extremely cold day.
The official was blue with cold when he boarded the bus and no warmer by the time he returned to Palmerston. The education board agreed almost immediately to the bus returning to Palmerston each day, so the pupils had a warm bus when they boarded.
Demand resulted in East Otago Coachways gaining a contract licence allowing it to take passengers to sports fixtures and functions and in 1975 it secured the right to run trips all over New Zealand.
The trips were popular and sometimes booked out. Mr and Mrs McLew both went on the South Island bus tours and shared the driving.
The McLews give a great deal of the credit for the safety record of East Otago Coachlines to their drivers.
Ritchies Coachlines Ltd would be operating the Palmerston-based school and charter services from the beginning of term one 2009, Ritchies Coachlines regional manager Malcolm Budd, of Dunedin, said.
East Otago Coachways did not tender for a new contract on its school bus runs.
Mr Budd said the high standard of service and safety record of East Otago Coachways was well known in the Bus and Coach association.
