Toronto school bus operations expected to return to normal on Monday after cancellations this week

All school bus routes are expected to be up and running in Toronto on Monday after more than 100 buses were cancelled on both Thursday and Friday due to unexpected driver licensing issues.

Toronto Student Transportation Group (TSTG) General Manager Kevin Hodgkinson told CTV News Toronto Friday that the issue first came to light on Wednesday night.

“First Student reached out to us. They had several… vehicles that they were unable to put drivers in effectively for Thursday morning,” he said.

“We simply couldn’t rearrange, or do any type of alternate transportation, with that volume of changes.”

He said First Student had purchased a number of 28-passenger buses that required special licences that many of its drivers did not possess.

He said children who ride larger buses to school were not impacted by the cancellations.

“The majority of these buses were students with special needs,” he said, noting that children that use wheelchairs were not impacted.

He said it is unclear how and why this issue wasn’t flagged sooner, given that they are already six weeks into the school year.

“This was all very abrupt in terms of what happened, frustrating from our end in terms of dealing with it,” Hodgkinson said. “It was unfortunate that it was so late that that information came to us.”

He said all bus routes should be operating normally next week as First Student works to bring in more buses from other areas to match up drivers with the correct buses that they are able to drive.

“We have all the confidence in First Student, despite what’s happened,” Hodgkinson said.

“It is an unfortunate issue that we had to deal with but we are absolutely confident that they will have everything rectified by Monday.”

First Student has not responded to CTV News Toronto’s request for comment.

In a joint statement released Thursday, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) said they were “deeply disappointed” by the cancellations.

The school boards went on to say that the cancellations impacted about 12 per cent of all bus routes on Thursday, leaving about 1,200 students at the TDSB and nearly 400 students at the TCDSB without transportation.

“We understand the significant inconvenience and disruption this caused for students, families, and schools who were provided very little notice by First Student about these route cancellations,” the statement read.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely. In the meantime, First Student has again committed to notifying families of any delays and cancellations as a result of this disruption.”

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Mike Walker