FAQs

Who are we?

We are a community project. Group of parents, like you, wondering how our kids will travel to Penrith Selective High School? Well, we got into action, connected with other parents nearby and to our surprise, found enough of them to organise our own bus transport that goes direct to Penrith Selective High School. We do not make profit. We just collect enough to cover the expenses. No volunteers are paid any salaries or wages. We do not have any paid employees.

How does it work?

We have kept it simple. All parents contribute equally towards the cost of the bus. Group of volunteer parents organise and deal with the bus provider. In the end, all you have to do is drop your kid to a designated stop and pick up in the afternoon. Everything else in between just works.

What are the benefits of using this service?

Well, in short, many. For very little cost, kids get to travel in an Air Conditioned Coach and don't have to worry about changing at bus stops, stations, walking to school etc. They get dropped right at the school gates and get picked up in the afternoon. We are a Seating Only service. That means, all kids have a guaranteed seat. Many kids do manage to get their homework done as well as they don't have to worry about Public Transport rush. It's a calm, safe and convenient travel environment to and from school.

How much does it cost? When and how do we pay?

The cost of transport is subject to number of kids interested. We pay a fixed price per day for the bus. So more kids on the bus = less $$ per child. We currently have 3 coaches and a seat costs between $12-13 per day for return trip. As this project is run by volunteer parents, to keep admin to a minimum, we ask parents to pay for a whole Term in advance. So depending on numbers of school days in a term and number of kids on the bus, the cost can vary.

For payments details, information is provided separately after receiving your Expression of Interest Form and subject to seat availability.

How do we decide the bus stop locations?

We use the information provided by parents in the Expression of Interest form and using the street name information provided, we choose a mutually convenient stop for all parents in that area. In choosing the bus stop, we have an overarching regard to other factors including forward moving pattern of the bus, avoiding peak traffic, impact on overall travel time etc. Unfortunately, we can't provide a stop that is closer to your home as we have to cater for all kids in the suburb. We also try to choose a stop with quite residential setting where possible. We work on the basis of one stop per suburb unless there are a lot of kids from one suburb. Bus route also have some implication on locations of bus stops.

I have completed the Expression of Interest form, what are the next steps?

We invite you to like and follow us on our Facebook page for regular updates. Once we receive your EOI, we will send you the payment information to book the seat for your child (subject to seat availability) if you live in one of the suburbs we currently cover. Before you make any payment, we invite you to contact us to discuss any questions you have. Please refer to our Terms of Use and refund policy before making any payment.

For parents in suburbs where we don't have our service, we will keep you posted on our future plans. Each year, we add new suburbs and routes to our service depending on the interest. Like our Facebook Page and don't forget to complete the EOI.

What is our refund policy?

Please refer to our Terms of Use and refund policy. We have very strict no refund policy (with one exception for Term 1, Year 7 students). This is because the Association does not run a business but simply collects money from parents and pass it on to the bus provider. Bus charges are fixed for each day hence when a parent asks for refund, its does not change our overall cost. Our costs remains the same and hence, to provide a refund, we have to go and ask for more funds from other parents. As we are run by volunteers, we don't have resources to do this and it puts other parents in a difficult position as well. Hence, we are very transparent about our strict no-refund policy. We encourage parents to ask all questions before making the payment.

I have more questions!

We are here to help. Please feel free to reach out to us to have a quick chat. We have provided our email, website, Facebook and our personal phone numbers in our Contact Us section. We look forward to hearing from you.