SERVICE CHANGES:

Several services from the Torquay area into the Grovedale and Belmont schools have been combined due to falling numbers. Public Transport Victoria has approved these changes.

AM and PM

• Inclusion of an Ocean Acres (Torquay) feeder bus in the AM and PM to/from the main school bus stop in central Torquay. Departing Coombes Rd 7.20am (showing destination N19) and PM departure from Pearl and Boston St at 4.20pm (showing destination S1).

AM
• 8.32 Torquay to Oberon High 7 (Buckley Bus) will no longer operate. Students will instead catch the Jan Juc to Oberon High (8) (now S2) which is will be rerouted through Torquay at 8.20. This bus also starts 5 minutes earlier at Jan Juc at Great Ocean Rd near Duffield’s Rd at 8.08am.
• 7.45 Torquay to Grovedale SC will no longer operate via Horseshoe Bend Rd. Instead the S3 bus to Belmont High School will operate via Mt Duneed and will drop any Grovedale students at Heyers Rd near the church.
• 7.45am Torquay to Belmont HS (S3) will now operate via Horseshoe Bend Rd and Grovedale for students for Belmont High School. It will be the only bus operating to Belmont High from Torquay and Grovedale in the morning.

PM
• 3.35pm Oberon HS to Torquay 2 will no longer operate.
• 3.35pm Oberon & Grovedale SC to Mt Duneed, Wombah Park & Torquay will no longer operate.
• The two above service are replaced by a 3.35pm – Oberon – Grovedale SC – Mt Duneed – Wombah Park – Torquay – Ocean Acres ( showing destination S1)
• The 3.30pm Jan Juc bus (S2) is now the only direct bus to Jan Juc for Oberon and Grovedale College. Grovedale College students will be required to catch it from cnr Burdoo Drive and Heyers Rd or they can still catch he 3.40pm S4 bus to Torquay then transfer separately to Jan Juc.
• The Newtown to Torquay bus will no longer travel past Oberon at 3.55pm.

Important – In addition to the school bus changes outlined, the public route bus timetables will be changing on 27 January. Most changes will be minor but it is advised that all students who catch a public bus should to check the timetable before commencing back at school.

SCHOOL BUS DESTINATION SIGNAGE:

McHarry’s Buslines will also implement a new school bus destination system for our school specials (myki/conveyance buses) effective from the start of the 2014 school year.

The aim of this project is for students to be able to identify their bus more easily.

Each school bus (excluding the country contract school buses) will show a 2 or 3 digit code.

The code is specific to the route the bus is operating on, and applies to both the morning and afternoon trip if it is the same or a similar route.

S has been selected for the school buses that service the southern suburb Geelong schools. Therefore, any school bus that ends at, or originates from Grovedale/Belmont will have the ’S’ prefix.

If the bus has an electronic signage system, then it will also display the written destination such as: ‘School Bus – S1 – Oberon’ (for the AM trip), and ‘School Bus – S1 – Ocean Acres via Torquay’ (for the PM trip.)

If there is no electronic destination, then it will just show: ‘S1’

I have attached a list of the new destination codes for buses servicing the Grovedale/Belmont schools.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

I would appreciate if you could please communicate these changes with your school community in time for the start of school in 2014.

You are welcome to contact me for further information as required. It is requested if parents have questions that they contact our office from mid-January onwards, as we are still in the process of processing changes to school trips for other schools.

Many thanks for your assistance with these changes, and please contact me if you wish to discuss anything in further detail.