PSS seeks to retire old buses by September

The Public School System’s Pupil Transportation Division is crossing its fingers that it will get its new buses by September before the beginning of the new school year.

According to PSS bus team leader Steven M. Pangelinan, at least three of its 13 buses that are at least 14 years old and are currently on the road are badly dilapidated, posing a safety hazard to the students, bus drivers, and other drivers on the road.

“The older ones are just down all the time. There are deteriorations of the body and it’s not just the outside, but on the inside of the body as well. They’re about to go just about anytime, so it’s better to take them off the road to be on the safe side,” Pangelinan said.

Federal Programs advisor Tim Thornburgh said that this year PSS is ordering five new 66-passenger school buses with advanced diesel engines and air conditioning. “We are also ordering three units of the 16-passenger school buses with wheelchair access for our special students needing this accommodation.”

According to Thornburgh, PSS will be replacing old school buses that have been in service from 10 to 14 years.

PSS has been facing a shortage of buses for more than several months now. As a result of this, buses have been making extra trips picking up and dropping off students. As per Pangelinan, bus fuel cost used to be at $15,000; however, with the extra trips they’ve been doing, bus fuel costs have reached up to $19,000 a month.

“The extra trips we need to make in a day is what is really hurting us right now. But it’s not just us; it’s everybody else on the island,” Pangelinan said.

He said the Pupil Transportation Division tries to accommodate everyone in a timely manner but he is hoping to get the new buses by September when the new school year begins.

“We just really need to take the old buses off the road for safety. And once we do that, our buses will be right back down to 10. I’ll still end up with a shortage of buses,” Pangelinan said.

In an earlier interview, he said the pupil transportation unit would need at least 30 buses to make bus riding services run smoothly.

But with what PSS has right now, “we just try our best to accommodate everybody.” After all, “our leaders of our future have to go to school somehow.”

PSS will also be purchasing two units of 12 passenger vans with wheelchair access to replace vehicles use by the Saipan Call-A-Ride Program.