Next Steps to Build on Boston Public Schools Transportation Progress Announcement

New Ridership Procedure will improve efficiency of the transportation system, leading to improved service for students and families 

Mayor Michelle Wu and Superintendent Mary Skipper today shared updates on the City’s progress to improve Boston Public Schools’ transportation and announced a new Ridership Procedure. The new procedure will be implemented after Boston Public Schools (BPS) April vacation week, to improve the efficiency of BPS transportation operations and further improve bus service for students. The Ridership Procedure was part of a new report released today, Driving Change: BPS Transportation Progress 2022-2025, which details the current performance of the BPS transportation system and the next steps to drive continuous improvement. Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper discussed key findings from the report and the forthcoming Ridership Procedure during a roundtable conversation with BPS educators and families at the Rafael Hernández School. 

In March 2025, BPS Transportation achieved an average of 94% on-time performance (OTP) among morning bus trips––the best monthly performance at any point since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago. The improvement in OTP is the result of specific changes implemented since 2022 to improve the efficiency of the system:

• Reforming key contracts, including with the vendor, currently Transdev, and the bus drivers’ union
• Eliminating staffing shortages that continue to impact school districts nationwide, nearly eliminating uncovered bus trips in Boston
• Modernizing routing and operations by replacing a paper-based system with a real-time GPS navigation technology and tracking app, Zūm
• Aligning bell times across almost all BPS schools to the three-tier schedule, with schools beginning at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30AM to enable most buses to complete three runs every morning
• Improving athletics transportation by implementing Zūm and optimizing scheduling of athletic games to stay within BPS’ yellow bus capacity, resulting in 100% coverage of scheduled athletic trips since the start of February 2025

“I’m so excited to be at this stage of talking about school bus transportation with a completely new set of issues because we’ve taken big steps forward with technology, outreach and rebuilding systems,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “Most importantly, this is about the individual experiences of each family and student, and we are excited to take that on and to do better each and every day to make sure that Boston continues to be making progress.”

“We are proud to see that our long-term planning and implementation efforts across the district are directly benefiting our students, including our improved transportation operation for Boston’s students,” said Superintendent Mary Skipper. “Achieving our highest on-time performance in five years is a reflection of the strategic changes we have made over the last few years. From modernizing our routing system to strengthening our partnerships with drivers and vendors, we have built a stronger, more reliable system for families. I am encouraged by our progress, which is helping more students get to school, to home, and to sports and extracurriculars safely and on time, and I have no doubt that we will only continue to improve.”

The Driving Change report includes detailed data showing that the operational reforms since 2022 have resulted in improved bus performance: fewer uncovered bus trips, including for athletics; higher on time performance (OTP); and stronger and more transparent customer service for families. 

For example, Day 1 OTP is a high-profile and important measure of transportation performance. After implementing numerous operational reforms secured through the new vendor and bus drivers’ contract, the start of the 2023-24 school year saw the highest Day 1 morning OTP in the past ten years. 

At the start of the 2024-25 school year, BPS Transportation deployed Zūm, a new technology that contributed to a significant but short-term decline in Day 1 OTP, as bus drivers used the app in real-world driving conditions for the first time. Over the first couple of weeks, as drivers, school staff, and families grew accustomed to the new technology, OTP rapidly improved, stabilizing at a higher rate than last year. From October to March of the 2024-25 school year, morning OTP averaged 91.7%, compared to 90.6% from October to March of 2023-24. 

However, without further structural changes to right size the transportation system, OTP is likely to plateau in the low- to mid-90s. At the transportation roundtable with BPS parents and students, Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper also announced that after April vacation, BPS will be implementing a Ridership Procedure for pausing student bus assignments based on consistent non-ridership. This will improve efficiency and performance of the bus routes.

This procedure––developed and unanimously recommended by BPS’ Transportation Advisory Council––will ensure only students who use the bus are routed for transportation, aligning transportation service with actual ridership. When a student does not ride the bus for ten consecutive school days, without providing prior notification in the Zūm app to cancel a student’s scheduled bus rides, BPS Transportation staff will proactively reach out to their family and provide notice that they will be removed from the route. Students can keep their bus assignment if they return to riding the bus. Students can also contact BPS Transportation to reinstate transportation services at any later date, as long as they are still eligible for a yellow bus.

Upon implementation of the Ridership Procedure, the District estimates that close to 1,000 students who have consistently not been riding the bus this school year will be opted out of transportation. Enabled by the adoption of the Zūm technology platform in 2024, which allowed BPS to systematically track student ridership for the first time, this change will further improve reliability and on-time performance, while ensuring resources are allocated equitably and efficiently to the students who rely on the school bus to get to and from school.

“I am truly proud to see this BPS Transportation report profile significant improvement over the past few years, especially this year alone with the Zūm app technology that I advocated for early in my term,” said District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepén. “To see this district-wide implementation as well as the Ridership Procedure and collaboration efforts show significant improvements in our young people getting to-and-from school is remarkable. This short period of time gives great hope of achieving a 100% on-time performance in the near future - a reality our families and children deserve.”

“Our bus drivers, monitors, and the entire Transdev and BPS Transportation teams work incredibly hard every day to get students to and from school safely and on time. While this report highlights the progress we've made in recent years, we know that the work is not yet done. With the implementation of the new Ridership Procedure, our team will be able to build bus routes based on actual student ridership for the first time - ensuring our resources are going towards those students who need the bus, adding slack to the system, and building upon the OTP improvements we've seen this year," said Dan Rosengard, Executive Director of BPS Transportation. “I’m grateful to the members of the Transportation Advisory Council for their hard work to design this procedure and advocate for continued transportation improvements for Boston students.”  

“As the Hernández is a dual-language school that draws students from all over the City, reliable, on time transportation is critical to our students' ability to be at school and ready to learn every day. Our staff and families have been strong advocates for transportation improvements to address the history of late buses. Although there is still room to grow, we've seen meaningful improvements in bus timeliness and communications this year, following the introduction of the Zūm app. I look forward to continued improvements following the implementation of the Ridership Procedure and will continue to be a strong advocate for taking the necessary steps to ensure all students have safe, reliable, on-time transportation every day,” said Rafael Hernandez Duel Language K-8 School Leader Danielle Costello.