On Sunday morning at 8.30am we placed our 2 Boys 12 & 15 onto a V-Line service From Melbourne travelling to Yass NSW. They were to get the train to Albury then transfer to a Bus which would take them into Yass. Upon where they were meeting their grandparents. Around 1pm I got a phone call at work from My 15yr old to say they were in Cootamundra.(west NSW)When I asked him why he told me that when he asked for the connecting bus that there wasn't one????? Their tickets clearly stated V- line Melb - Yass. But wait it gets worse......Around 4pm they again rang to say they had arrived at Yass Junction Railway on a Country link Train station around 5 - 10 km and were getting the bus into Yass town. Around 15-30 minutes later they rang again to say the driver had not stopped in Yass.....to which we told him to tell the driver. He hung up to ring 5 minutes later to say they were off the bus and the driver had pretty much DUMPED them in Murrumbateman 17 KM from YASS & 39 km from Canberra. We spent hours trying to find out a)what was going on and b)who dropped them in the middle of nowhere to be told, The Bus from Albury left because of the heat, The driver forgot they were on the bus, Basically everyone trying to cover their a$$$ when the bottom line is 2 CHILDREN were dropped in the middle of nowhere on a main highway where anything could have happened because a Driver had a schedule to keep and couldn't be bothered driving back.
Yes we accepted responsibility for sending them but THEY WERE Booked onto a specific service and we double checked everything. The least we now expect is the driver to be sacked. We have since found out the driver says he didn't look at his Manifest when he had also told my son they were booked on the previous day yet another ???. Forget the fact we had to get someone drive to retrieve them and take them to their original meeting point since NOT everyone in this country uses a mobile. In the meantime Grandparents are waiting at the bus stop and we are 600km away. They spent over 2 hours stuck in Murrumbateman waiting whilst we tried to contact someone who was able to collect them.,
These 2 boys were getting very distressed and considered walking back along a main highway 19km to town.
We have been getting the run around non stop from both V-line and Countrylink who have all said we will investigate this is NOT good enough we are entitled to an immediate investigation into this whole issue from, Why they were told there was no Bus and put on a completely different service let alone a driver FAILING IN HIS DUTY OF CARE.
We are prepared to take this as far as we have to.
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