Students at Fortitude Valley State Secondary College have been left waiting at the kerb after their dedicated school bus repeatedly failed to arrive on time, with one recent incident seeing the service run more than 13 minutes early, leaving families with no warning and no way to track it down.
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The problems centre on route 931, which serves the college, and have drawn growing frustration from local parents who say the service has been unreliable for some time. The situation came to a head recently when one mother waited more than half an hour for the bus to arrive. When she contacted Translink, she was allegedly told the service had already run, having turned up well ahead of its scheduled stop time.
Brisbane City, which manages dedicated school bus routes, acknowledged the early departure was the result of human error. But at least one affected parent pushed back on that framing, arguing that a bus which arrives early without waiting amounts to the same thing as one that never shows up.
Compounding the frustration is the absence of real-time tracking. A feature that previously allowed families to follow the bus through an app was removed when an updated version of the app launched last year. Parents say that without it, they have no way of knowing whether the bus is running late, has already passed, or is not coming at all, leaving students and parents in the dark at the stop.
The 931 timetable was revised at the start of this school year, with most weekday morning services adjusted to target a 9:10am arrival at the college. Wednesday services run slightly earlier, aiming for 8:55am ahead of a 9:05am assembly. Despite those changes, parents say late Wednesday arrivals have persisted. Some families have reportedly received communication from the school flagging ongoing punctuality issues linked to the service.
Transport chair Andrew Wines acknowledged the concerns, saying the council regarded student safety as a fundamental priority and was continuously monitoring its network. He indicated the issues specific to route 931 were being actively addressed.
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For Fortitude Valley families, the immediate ask is straightforward: consistent timetabling and the restoration of a tool that tells them where their children’s bus actually is. Until those issues are resolved, the uncertainty that has defined this term for many local families is unlikely to ease.
Published 10-March-2026
