Bitter cold temps delay Worcester school buses
Public, private schools affected by cold buses
Updated: 11:23 AM EST Jan 8, 2014
Todd Kazakiewich
School buses in Worcester were significantly delayed Wednesday because of the bitterly cold weather, according to school officials.Watch reportSchool officials posted 16 delayed bus routes on its website and sent a phone message alert at 7:15 a.m.Worcester School Committee member Tracy Novick said the problems were caused by diesel buses that wouldn't start in the bitter cold."Not surprisingly, with diesel engines, we had some buses that wouldn't start. And, you get enough of those not starting, and run out of spares, and we start having routes that are affected, and that's what happened this morning," Novick said.Novick said very few students, if any, were stranded at bus stops because parents were informed of the problem early in the morning."We actually run a tiered system so each bus runs up to three routes in the morning and three in the afternoon. So you could have one bus out, but actually end up with multiple schools impacted because of the way the route system works," Novick said.In addition to Worcester public schools, private schools including St. Peter Marian Catholic Junior-Senior High School and St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School, were also delayed.Novick said all the buses eventually fired, and no delays were expected for the afternoon.
WORCESTER, Mass. —
School buses in Worcester were significantly delayed Wednesday because of the bitterly cold weather, according to school officials.
Watch report
School officials posted 16 delayed bus routes on its website and sent a phone message alert at 7:15 a.m.
Worcester School Committee member Tracy Novick said the problems were caused by diesel buses that wouldn't start in the bitter cold.
"Not surprisingly, with diesel engines, we had some buses that wouldn't start. And, you get enough of those not starting, and run out of spares, and we start having routes that are affected, and that's what happened this morning," Novick said.
Novick said very few students, if any, were stranded at bus stops because parents were informed of the problem early in the morning.
"We actually run a tiered system so each bus runs up to three routes in the morning and three in the afternoon. So you could have one bus out, but actually end up with multiple schools impacted because of the way the route system works," Novick said.
In addition to Worcester public schools, private schools including St. Peter Marian Catholic Junior-Senior High School and St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School, were also delayed.
Novick said all the buses eventually fired, and no delays were expected for the afternoon.