Bus Éireann has officially launched an exciting new competition for transition year students, ‘Go Places with Bus Éireann’, which is running for the first time in the current academic year, 2016/2017. Participating students will be in with a chance of winning one of five regional prizes of €3,000 for their school, and one national prize of a fun filled day out for their class to a leisure park, including complimentary use of a private coach.
Projects are being invited under a range of categories including safety, technology and communication, environment and sustainability, community and society, culture or sport. They can be submitted in various ways including via video, a written submission, a PowerPoint presentation or an academic poster.
Students are being asked to submit their ideas for how school transport and public bus transport can best support schools and the wider public. Winner of this year’s Passenger Transport Company of the Year, Bus Éireann is the operator of school transport for the Department of Education and Skills. It is also the largest provider of regional city, town, and rural public transport services, with 650 vehicles in operation on 330 routes throughout the country. The school transport operation involves more than 4,000 vehicles servicing 3,000 routes to 2,000 schools.
Bus Éireann chief executive Martin Nolan said: “We’re inviting transition year students to come up with innovative proposals on how bus transport – and Bus Éireann – can best continue to support schools and wider society into the future. Every day, we carry 112,500 students to school and back – that’s over 41 million journeys per year on the School Transport Scheme alone. Transition year is a time to think outside the box and focus on project work, so who better to give us feedback and ideas on our services than TY students, many of whom use our services every day."
Entries must be submitted by the entrant’s school after 9am on February 28 2017 and before the deadline of 5pm on March 16 2017. For full information, see www.goplaceswithbe.ie
