Since the commencement of the school year, overcrowding on these buses has become a hot topic among both students and parents. 

However, complaints about the number of students on buses on the afternoon routes have been refuted by Berrima Buslines.

In a letter sent to the Southern Highland News, a parent from Chevalier College said overcrowding was an ongoing issue on the afternoon Moss Vale route. 

“My child has frequently commented on how overcrowding made it hard for people to get off at their stops,” they said. 

"He physically can’t push through all the people so has to wait to get off at the next stop.”

Berrima Buslines manager Chris Moule said the company followed strict capacity rules. 

However, said changes in student’s afternoon schedules and destinations could play havoc with the number of students on each bus. 

Mr Moule said most of the fleet had a registered seating capacity of 57 to 61 seated and between 10 and 29 standing.

Furthermore, state government regulations determines a three for two seated and three for two standing requirement for any students 12 years of age and younger.

“We will never allow a bus to carry more than its registered legal seated and standing capacities,” Mr Moule said. 

Under existing contracts with Transport for NSW Berrima Buslines is obligated to carry school students between their home address and school each day.

“We aware of every student’s home address and the school each student attends and that therefore ensures sufficient bus capacity, seated and standing, based on that information,” Mr Moule said. 

Mr Moule further said that most overcrowding situations were created when students changed their travel arrangements to suit them or their parents/carers and did not catch the designated bus between their home address and school.

“This problem is much more prevalent in the afternoon,” he said. 

“Many students, for example, on a Monday will go home, Tuesday they go to Grandma’s, Wednesday they go to the parents workplace, Thursday they go to sport training, Friday they go to their friends house - this is extremely hard to control when we have sufficient capacity between home addresses and schools and we will never actually know where some students are travelling each day.”

It is very common to see buses from Moss Vale High, Bowral High, Chevalier and Oxley have large numbers of students travelling into Bowral on the PM services instead of travelling to their home addresses.

While Berrima Buslines will remain flexible on this issue, students will be forced to catch their correct bus home from school as soon as loadings exceed legal capacities. 

However, at this time empty buses have been waiting at key locations like Chevalier and Moss Vale High in case of overloading. 

“We have done this everyday this year and still doing so now,” Mr Moule said.

“If a bus reaches its maximum legal loading capacity the driver is to radio our office immediately where another bus will be dispatched or we can put those students onto another service.”

The number of buses, services and where they physically travel to are all strictly monitored and approved by Transport NSW and any changes to any services must be approved by Transport NSW.

Mr Moule said that while some students had to wait for another bus due to others reaching capacity, Berrima Buslines did not have an ongoing overcrowding issue. 

“We will not carry illegal loadings and we will make arrangements for any students that cannot fit on a bus,” Mr Moule said.

“They will not be left stranded.”