Hunter Mitchell is routinely 45 minutes late to school, due not to a lack of timekeeping but to a lack of school bus services.
Under the Otago Regional Council’s temporarily reduced Dunedin bus timetable, the 13-year-old Taieri College pupil has been leaving home at 7.20am and catching three different buses before reaching school at 9.30am.
Although teachers were understanding, he was "annoyed" at the situation, Hunter said.
He wanted a bus to run from his Taieri Mouth home, about 30km away, to the school.
A reduced bus timetable was introduced last month by the council as an already short-staffed fleet of drivers was knocked back by Covid-19 and winter illnesses, causing many services to be cancelled.
However, the council had said school bus routes would be maintained.
It extended its bus routes to help children get to school earlier this year, after commercial Dunedin bus company Otago Road Services ceased operation late last year.
"He’s zoned for Taieri College, but at the moment he’s catching three different buses to get to school 45 minutes late."
Recently, a bus was diverted and Hunter was taken to the central bus hub. He arrived at school at 10am.
Hunter had been arriving at school five minutes late since the start of the year under the council’s school service, but the reduced timetable made the situation worse, he said.
"They canned the 8.30 bus that he used to get on, so now he gets off at Green Island at quarter past eight and he doesn’t catch another one until nine.
"They’ve only got one bus shelter there, so they can’t all fit in it so they go to the Fresh Choice.
"They’re sitting outside that. Of course they’re in their school uniform and the general public’s giving them gyp because they think they’re wagging school — but he’s just trying to get to school."
Council staff were unavailable for comment yesterday.
