Following complaints from parents and pleas from the school for an extra bus on the affected Luggate route, the ministry announced that from yesterday morning it had split the bus run into two trips, about 40 minutes apart, as a temporary measure.
The ministry’s regional transport adviser for Otago and Southland De Thomson emailed the school on Wednesday afternoon advising staff of the changes.
"This temporary solution will remain in place until we are able to complete the cluster review of all ministry-funded buses in the Wanaka region. This review will assess the number of eligible students and will design routes to accommodate these students," she said.
There was no indication how long the review would take.
On Wednesday, primary school pupils, some as young as 6, were left at their stop on the Luggate school bus run, after the driver told them the bus was "full".
The bus returned half an hour later but the incident left some children in tears, and disgruntled both parents and school principal Wendy Bamford.
With winter approaching, Dr Bamford said she did not want to have any of her pupils waiting around for half an hour for their bus to pick them up.
For years, there has been just one school bus run from Queensberry through to the town centre carrying pupils from the high school and two primary schools.
But as the area’s population booms, school roll numbers have followed.
The Otago Daily Times reported earlier this year that Wanaka Primary School’s roll had grown by 83% since 2011, while neighbouring Mount Aspiring College had grown by 50% since 2012.
