Before the start of the 2023-24 school year, Montebello bus lines decided to push their line 60 bus times back an hour. This helped many students get to school, but it also cut off a whole part of the city of Pico Rivera from being able to get to school on time. Sometime during the first semester of school, they (who) released a new bus schedule eliminating some hourly stops. This affected students who used the bus to get to school.
Although it inconveniences people who have been taking the bus for a couple of years, it also benefits people who haven’t had the chance to get on the bus in the mornings. Anyone taking the Northbound bus can get on as early as 7:56 and get to school at an early 8:09, 20 minutes before classes start. Also, because the bus times were pushed back an hour, students can take the bus home. The bus passes by northbound in front of the school at about 3:52.
But is it fair to strip regular bus takers of the bus? There were also many students, besides myself, who relied on the bus. The bus would have to stop at almost every stop and by the time it got to El Rancho, people were standing in the aisle and by the door.
I enjoyed taking the bus, and for a while, it helped me get to where I needed to go. When I was a junior, I would hop on the Southbound Line 60 bus at 7:55 on San Gabriel River Pkwy and get to school at 8:15. Now, the earliest bus I would be able to take is at 8:30, when classes start. As someone who is taking a 0 period, there is no bus I could take to get to school.
It is also this way for many other students including junior Erica Velazquez who said, “The bus time change is extremely unfair since the earliest the bus passes near my house is 8:30, which is the time school starts, therefore making me late.” This is a common issue for students who have relied on the bus to get to school in the past.
Velazquez adds, “I don’t understand why they would make such an inconvenient time change and it’s very out of the way for my parents to take me to school every day. Especially since they have work and it’s a hassle.”
There are many reasons why students might take the bus but being unable to find a way of transportation so early in the morning is difficult. Most students have to rely on unreliable or erratic forms of transportation to make it to school on time.
A senior at Ruben Salazar High School and regular bus user Omar Huerta says, “I hate the bus system. They keep changing the time and making it so unreliable for students that need to use the bus for school purposes.”
Anyone who has been affected drastically by the Montebello Bus Lines line 60 bus time changes is very upset. Yes, there is now a bus to take home from school but getting to school on time is the most important since students can get penalized for being late.
Overall, there is nothing that we can do to change the bus times but we can voice our opinions on the decision to cut some of the bus times.
