Social distancing not required on buses, says operator
School buses are not affected by "social distancing" requirements, a local bus operator has told Woy Woy Public School.
"School services are not affected and will not have limited capacity," said Busways customer experience manager Ms Sarah Langthorne said in a letter published in the school newsletter.
As a result, "adults may have to wait for the next service or choose to get off if they're not comfortable with how many customers are on a service", she said.
"School services will continue to operate as normal, with no student to be left behind.
"NSW Health advice is that children are at lower risk of contracting Covid-19," she said.
"Transport for NSW and Busways have increased cleaning measures on board bus services and will continue to monitor transport usage to support students travelling safely to and from school.
"Our policy is that no school student will be left behind and, as such, school students will be given priority over other passengers on regular route services even if this means a service goes over physical distancing capacity.
"All services will continue to operate to a normal timetable until advised otherwise.
"Students are still required tap on and off with their Opal card or show their school bus pass when boarding.
"Where possible, students should maintain social distance from each other on board bus services.
"If different school groups are boarding a bus, each school should maintain social distance from the other and students should always maintain a safe distance from their bus driver, where practically possible.
"Busways has continued to exercise additional procedures for all Busways employees to follow in order to limit any chance of the virus spreading.
"This includes issuing employees with hand sanitiser, requiring employees to wash their hands every time they enter and leave a worksite, employees staying home if they're unwell, and minimising the handling of cash."
Newsletter, 22 May 2020
Sarah Langthorne, Busways