{"id":523068,"date":"2026-03-06T19:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523068\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T19:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T19:05:16","slug":"gagebrook-teenager-wins-back-friday-bus-service-after-two-years-of-walking-through-swamp-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523068\/","title":{"rendered":"Gagebrook teenager wins back Friday bus service after two years of walking through swamp to school"},"content":{"rendered":"

When 13-year-old Jack Triffitt describes his walk to school every Friday, it sounds like an exaggerated tale from years past.<\/p>\n

“I walk down the hill. It’s very steep and then I’d have to walk down a yucky swamp and then I’d have to walk up another hill, which is very rocky,” he said.<\/p>\n

Next comes a dirt road, a bridge and another 1.5 kilometres through suburbia before he reaches his school in Bridgewater, north of Hobart.<\/p>\n

He could stick to paved streets, but that would add an extra 15 minutes to an already 25-minute walk.<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/p>\n

Jack says he had to walk through a swamp to get to school on Fridays. (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n

From Monday to Thursday, Jack catches the 530 Metro bus to school from his home in Gagebrook.<\/p>\n

But on Fridays, there was no bus to catch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 530 bus ran on a different schedule that did not provide a service early enough for Jack to get to school on time.<\/p>\n

Other students also had to find alternative transport on Fridays and some ended up not attending school.<\/p>\n

Loading…Two years of lobbying brings results<\/p>\n

Jack has been working with the Brighton Youth Action Group for two years, trying to get the Friday bus reinstated.<\/p>\n

He has lobbied politicians, government departments and Metro.<\/p>\n

“The whole process has been very hard and very busy,” Jack said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been back and forward with ministers, getting emails, phone calls.”\"Close<\/p>\n

Jack will not have to walk through the swamp on Fridays after the government agreed to make changes. (ABC News: Jonny McNee)<\/p>\n

The campaign has finally been successful, with the state government committing to reinstating the service.<\/p>\n

“I felt excited,” Jack said.<\/p>\n

“People at my school felt very excited and very happy that they could get to school finally five days a week.”<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Kerry Vincent said he had been aware of Jack’s plight.<\/p>\n

“We’ve worked through it and we’ve reinstated those buses for Jack,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We had been working through with [the Department of State Growth] to make sure those services were there.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The local council says Jack’s issues are part of a broader lack of public transport in the area. (ABC News: Selina Bryan)<\/p>\n

Bus services inadequate for growing region<\/p>\n

While Jack’s problem has been solved, the broader Brighton community continues to face other transport challenges.<\/p>\n

Brighton Council community development manager Angela Turvey works with the Brighton Youth Action Group (BYAG).<\/p>\n

“It’s been a very long road for the BYAG. This is not the end, though,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That’s the most important thing to remember, that this is just a small part of the issues for our community when it comes to public transport.”\"An<\/p>\n

Bridgewater, Brighton and Gagebrook are on the northern side of the Bridgewater Bridge over the River Derwent. (Supplied: Department of State Growth)<\/p>\n

Ms Turvey cited the regularity of buses into Glenorchy and Hobart as one challenge, while getting around within Brighton’s suburbs of Bridgewater, Gagebrook and Herdsmans Cove as another.<\/p>\n

Bridgewater, Brighton and Gagebrook are on the northern side of the Bridgewater Bridge over the River Derwent, making interconnected local bus services even more important.<\/p>\n

Bridgewater is considered one of Hobart’s most disadvantaged suburbs, with poor public transport options a contributing factor.<\/p>\n

“It’s unrealistic to be able to use those services to just hop between suburbs because they’re so infrequent,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Turvey said that contributed to social isolation and mental health issues because it was a barrier to engaging and participating in the community.<\/p>\n

The council is working on creating better transport connections, pushing for a trial of buses running on loops within suburbs and linking with park and ride facilities and express bus services.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Bridgewater is considered one of Hobart’s most disadvantaged suburbs. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Brighton Council chief executive officer James Dryburgh said it would address the gaps in the network.<\/p>\n

“It’s as simple as people’s daily lives being able to function \u2014 education, health, food, groceries, just being able to get around,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We have a big population now. The critical mass is there to support this sort of service, so we just need to respond to that population now and improve the system overall.”<\/p>\n

The council is working with the state government and Metro to try to progress the plan.<\/p>\n

Mr Dryburgh said he was realistic about how quickly that could be achieved.<\/p>\n

“We understand that money’s not that freely available, but there are lots of incremental steps we can take to build the overall system,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 13-year-old Jack Triffitt describes his walk to school every Friday, it sounds like an exaggerated tale from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[56128,243289,260629,260630,43,44,126015,67410,5265,2801,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-523068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-attendance","tag-bridgewater","tag-brighton-council-community","tag-brighton-youth-action-group","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-route","tag-school-bus","tag-service","tag-tasmania","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}