The deadline is fast approaching for Bus Éireann’s 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.  With seven weeks left to enter, 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 Tayto Park, including complimentary use of a private coach.

Projects are being invited under a range of categories including ‘Safety’, ‘Technology & Communication, ‘Environment & 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. Bus Éireann is the operator of School Transport for the Department of Education and Skills and is also the largest provider of regional city, town and rural public transport services, with 650 vehicles in operation on 275 routes throughout the country. Its school transport operation involves over 6,000 vehicles servicing 3,000 routes to 2,000 schools.

As ’Go Places with Bus Éireann’ is based around project work with an education element, it can perfectly complement Transition Year curriculum. 41 million journeys on the School Transport Scheme

Bus Éireann’s PR and Media Manager Nicola Cooke said: “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.  We’re looking forward to hearing from Transition Year students from all over the country about some new and different inputs into public bus transport.”

Launching the competition, Bláthnaid Treacy, RTE’s ‘Can’t Stop Dancing’  and 2FM presenter said: “With the Junior Cert behind them, TY students have more time to think about what makes them tick. Public transport is so important and who better to help Bus Éireann get some ideas for the future than students?  This is a great opportunity for Transition Year students to get stuck in and play a part in shaping our public services.”  

RTE’s 2FM and Two Tube presenter Stephen Byrne, who co-hosts with Bláthnaid, said: “We all use public or school transport at some point in our lives, so why not have your say?  There are loads of ways to be creative and Transition Years are well placed to come up with ideas. Projects are a great way of collaborating on these. Topics could range from better use of apps and social media – a personal interest of mine – to safety on board or engagement with schools and community groups.”

For full information, see here.