Niagara student transportation services (By appointment only) - Niagara Falls, Ontario

Jillian C.

No surprise the rating for this organization is so low, already. My experience has been no different. Touting guidelines which maintain and ensure consistency for "all families", and standing so ridiculously staunchly to the rules, and then picking up and dropping of my children LATE more than half of the time...... Give your heads a shake 🤦🏻‍♀️ We had the most simple, and non impacting (actually, more likely would have been an improvement) request to change a stop. This request came from a total of 3 families who currently use the bus stop. The request was to move the stop so that the bus would go down a parallel neighbourhood road to where it was already driving, and then it would pop back out and continue on it's regular route. This organization have proven themselves to be as bureaucratic and unreasonable as they are heartless. Extremely disappointed to say the least. I will be sure to followup with them quite diligently about the amount of instances the bus is late for the remainder of the year. Like a commenter said above, if you're always going to be late, then change the darn schedule already! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out!

Kiwi_Nightmare `. ?.

Horrible. Late pick up times and drop off times, speeds down my road breaking last minute to get me, has speed by me MULTIPLE times. Has drove off while I'm still standing on the bus. And anytime I've contacted NSTS they said it's because it's a new bus driver. They don't care about student safety, as well as my driver CONSTANTLY having 3-4 kids who aren't on the bus, on the bus. Ages vary. Yet someone who she's let on 5 times she suddenly is saying no longer can come on the bus Missed my stop then asks me to walk back to my stop because she's already late Horrible drivers. And horrible customer service.

Andrew H.

The management of this organization is not at all flexible, accommodating or even compassionate when it comes to reviewing a slight pick up/off drop off location. Sure they say they are within their policy guidelines and they are; but, won't entertain a slight change that would benefit two families and the change would have no impact on policy guideline. They talk about "best services to current students...". The change we were requesting would only improve the experience for these two families. We are not sure why they are being so difficult. Don't they sort of work for us?

Dennis B.

I recently experienced a set back where my 11 year old daughter no longer had bus access. However, thanks to the quick actions of Eric Dagenais from Niagara Student Transportation Services my daughter once again has an efficient bus route. Eric was a great listener, sympathetic, professional and reliable. This was an "excellent customer service experience" and I'm glad my child is with NSTS!

R M.

I’m extremely disappointed with the school bus service. On the very first day of school, the bus did not arrive on time, causing significant stress and disruption. This lack of punctuality is unacceptable and sets a poor precedent for the rest of the school year. The service needs major improvements to ensure reliability and professionalism.

Ashlee P.

A handful of times this year, my 4 year old has had some anxiety getting on the bus. When she backs up or grabs me, our driver immediately starts saying "look at all these cars waiting, I'm leaving, I'm closing the doors, I'm leaving" over and over and over.

She doesn't give me a minute to calmly talk to my daughter to get on the bus. It starts giving me anxiety with how relentless she is, so I can only imagine how it makes my daughter feel. Starting her school day with someone saying they're leaving her and closing the doors on her. The driver actually shut the door right on her face last week. The driver is extremely impatient.

I spoke to the principal and NSTS. I found it very interesting that in their response they never once addressed any issues I brought up. The only thing they did was try to turn it around and place blame on us, my daughter. They spoke solely about timing and that if we aren't out there ready to get on the bus right away, that the driver is advised to leave my daughter. We are out there 10 minutes early, usually the first ones, every single day. But the company does not care about the children, them getting to school safely or their mental health. Apparently timing is the only thing that matters.

They also felt the need to end their response saying that in a perfect world, the drive would smile or say hello or good morning to the students but she doesn't have to or be forced to. No, of course she doesn't have to. Unfortunately, the driver is the first person they see to start their school day and when she gets on to see an impatient, miserable person, it's not a great start.

You are working with young kids, some of which will absolutely have some anxiety about going to school. Drop off for my daughter is 1000 times worse than the bus. We absolutely understand that there is a schedule and the other people on the road have somewhere to be, but going at us the second the driver thinks she's not getting on, is not helping the situation. It would be faster if you just sat patiently and let the parent deal with it and quite frankly a minute or two isn't the end of the world. They are not cookie cutter, they are kids.

We wait for the bus every single day, she is late picking them up and late dropping them off, every day! We don't say any thing. In the middle of winter, how many times did we wait for ages in the snow.

We live on the other side of a highway and train track, god forbid, they leave a student on the side of the road, who was there waiting because they were having some anxiety that day. Maybe an older student, who's parents had to go to work. And they now have to walk over the highway and the train tracks to go to school. You might regret your impatience for the rest of your life, if something ever happened to that child.

Very unfortunate to find out that these people care more about timing than the students themselves.

Jay C.

This company and its ability to schedule and run bussing is nothing short of an absolute embarrassment. Notifications are a disaster and wildly inaccurate. Good luck planning appointments or anything else if your children need to take a bus home with them at the helm.

Nicole M.

The process and stress in order to accommodate and keep my 4 year old son with severe level ASD is unreal. The amount of "approval" I need to get and do over and over again (from people who don't know my son like I do, nor understand or see him on a daily basis or know his needs and triggers better then I do) just to try to keep him safe and seated is insane. You would hope these processes and accommodations were made to run quick and smoothly in order to support care takers of children with special needs but it's not. I have been advocating for my son to simply get a buckle cover or harness in place for over a year now, finally get a safety guard which has not been working well, only to be told I'd have to re do everything and consult someone else first to now get a harness in place and that I should have started with that in the first place . After advocating for one in the first place for so long last year only to be over looked and turned down every single time. And now to be told that I should have started with the harness After having multiple emails from the past year requesting one only to be told "thats not the process" ...zero consistency...I could go on with how much of a slap in the face this is to hear from a "professional" company.