Auckland Transport tells operators not to abandon children after an 11 year old in school uniform was left stranded by two bus drivers

An 11-year-old girl in full school uniform was left standing on an Auckland footpath this week after bus drivers from two separate services refused to let her board because she had forgotten her wallet, in an incident that has prompted Auckland Transport to remind operators that children must not be abandoned at the kerb.

The student was trying to travel from Pt Chevalier to her school in Ponsonby on Tuesday morning. Her grandmother, Monica Genet, said the child realised at the bus stop that her wallet was at home, and politely explained the situation to the first driver who pulled in. Rather than allowing her on board with a promise to top up later, the driver put her off the bus. When the next service arrived, the same thing happened again.

The bus stop where she was stranded sits about 20 minutes from her home, and the walk to school would have taken her well over an hour through morning peak traffic. Genet told RNZ she was “really angry and upset” when she heard what had happened, and lodged a formal complaint with Auckland Transport that afternoon.

“She very politely approached the bus driver and explained her situation, the driver just would not give her any assistance,” Genet said. “She’s an 11-year-old child, she’s trying to get up to school on time.”

Auckland Transport responded by saying public transport operators should not be turning away children regardless of whether they were in school uniform. “Our clear expectation is that our public transport operators should not be leaving children behind, regardless of whether they are wearing a school uniform or not,” the agency said in a statement, adding that it had been in touch with the operator concerned to remind drivers of that expectation.

The buses on the route are run by Kinetic, the Australian-headquartered company that holds a large slice of the Auckland contract after a series of acquisitions over the past few years. Kinetic told reporters it was investigating what happened and had nothing further to add at this stage. The company has been one of the better performing operators on driver shortages and reliability statistics this year, but the incident has highlighted that frontline policies on cashless fares and stranded children are not always being applied with common sense.

Child safety advocates have weighed in on the case. Megan West from Child Matters, the country’s largest child protection education organisation, told the New Zealand Herald that any decision a transport worker takes around an unaccompanied child needed to be guided by the best interests of that child. She called for clear, written procedures so that drivers were not left to make judgment calls on the spot about whether to leave a primary school student on the side of the road.

The story has tapped into a wider unease about how Auckland’s bus network is treating its youngest passengers. The shift to cashless ticketing through AT HOP cards has, in most cases, been a smooth one, with concession fares for school-age children making the bus a default option for thousands of Auckland families. But the system relies on a child remembering one small piece of plastic, and on drivers being willing to use discretion when something goes wrong. Genet pointed out the obvious gap when she questioned why fare evading adults were so often waved through, while an honest child who had simply forgotten her card was being put off.

Auckland Transport has previously made it clear that drivers do have the authority to let a child on without payment when there is a genuine safety concern. The agency runs a “no child left behind” expectation across all of its contracted operators, and has reminded operators of it in regular communications. Tuesday’s incident suggests that message is not always reaching the cab.

For Genet, the immediate issue is what happens to her granddaughter the next time she catches the bus. She said she would like an apology from the drivers involved, and assurance from Kinetic that staff training has been refreshed. She also wants to see Auckland Transport publish a clearer, plain English policy that parents can show their children, so they know what to do and what to expect if they ever find themselves in the same situation.

The case follows a difficult run for Auckland’s bus network, which has been dealing with a string of driver assaults this year and rising complaints about reliability on key school commuter routes. Drivers themselves have repeatedly raised concerns about safety on board, and operators have been pushing for more security measures. In that climate, frontline staff are being asked to make hundreds of small judgement calls every shift, often under pressure. But advocates argue that the test for any of those calls, when a child is involved, has to start and end with the wellbeing of the child in front of them.

Auckland Transport says it will follow up with Kinetic on the outcome of the company’s investigation, and Genet’s complaint will form part of that review. In the meantime, the agency is encouraging any parent or caregiver whose child has had a similar experience to lodge a formal complaint so that patterns can be tracked.

What do you think should happen when a child in school uniform turns up at a bus stop without their HOP card? Should drivers always wave them on, or do you have sympathy for staff trying to enforce a cashless system? Share your view in the comments below.