Hereford needs to get a grip with their buses. The shortage of bus drivers has caused consistent double ups and issues with the bus routes. More specifically my own.

Last year, prior the bus crash, we had been doubling up every other day with two kids in every seat, sometimes even three. Then our bus crashed. The period after this is when all of the trouble escalated.

We never knew for sure when we would have one of our normal bus drivers, yes, one of our normal bus drivers, or be squished into seats with the same students we had almost died with just prior. I dreaded the announcements at the end of the day for fear of being packed into that bus with 48 or more people.

We were all frustrated and annoyed at being stuck together because our routes were easier to combine than others.

Then one day in the late spring we ran into another issue. I began to get onto the doubled up bus I hated so much when several people on the bus told me to get off. There are too many! People are on the floor! This was shouted with every new person that tried to get on the bus. So I, along with several others, just got off.

I was offered a ride with another person on my bus whilst most of the others either stayed after school or got their own rides. This incident caused me some trouble as I wasn’t exactly supposed to get off of my bus and sit inside the school waiting for a ride.

The months following this resulted in countless complaints and calls to the school by the parents of the students involved with reassurances that the situation would be fixed the next year.

Fast forward to the present and its three quarters into the school year when this issue is kind of solved. All this year my bus had five or six rotating drivers in the morning and occasionally we would get them in the afternoon. A majority of the time however we would be doubled up with the same students as last year.

Aside from the usual complaints and whining there was essentially no difference in our situation from last year.

Then on Friday, Jan. 27 the students involved received a letter.

The letter explained that due to the lack of bus drivers, my bus route would be split into three. Phillip’s Fields and Hendricks Ct. would be on one bus, Scotts Manor Ct. on another and Molesworth & Rayville would be on another bus, permanently.

This, while solving our previous issue with being too packed into one bus only created more as the students who had been riding the bus together for over a decade were separated. It was like losing a friend. Most of us were extremely frustrated and fed up with our bus situation and this was the boiling point.

On our last bus ride together we all plotted out the exact points when we would be able to start driving to school and be free of this horrendous bus situation.

So, in conclusion, our bus system is driving kids away from the school provided carpool and towards their own transportation.