About Delays and Cancellations

Weather and road conditions are assessed by bus operators and NPSSTS staff between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. with a decision made by 5:45 a.m. Ultimately, the responsibility for the decision lies with the General Manager of the NPSSTS (or designate). Several factors are taken into account, including road maintenance schedules, road closures, road conditions, visibility, temperature, and impending weather conditions.

As stated in our Delays or Cancellations Due to Inclement Weather guideline, student transportation may be cancelled due to any of the following conditions:

• Visibility is reduced to less than 100 m.
• Road conditions are unsafe for travel.
• The temperature is less than -35° Celsius or -40 with the wind chill factor.
• Severe weather is expected in the area within the next 10 hours.

The decision whether or not to cancel transportation is never taken lightly. In assessing the situation, we strive to ensure that neither academic studies nor student safety is compromised. In this vein, we will neither send the buses on the road if it is clearly hazardous to do so nor cancel buses when it is not clearly necessary to do so. Obviously, some inclement weather days are clearer than others and conditions sometimes change after the decision is made.

The easiest option is to create a BusPlanner Web parent account and get notified: follow the parent portal instructions.

You can also check online or listen to the radio for cancellation announcements, but you need to know your weather zone first. The list of weather corridors lets you determine or confirm your zone. If you don’t know your route number, please check through the parent portal. Corridor cancellations will be posted to our Delays and Cancellations page shortly after the decision is made (by about 6:30 a.m., barring any unforeseen circumstances).

For a list of stations by region and other handy inclement weather information, please see the What You Should Know About Inclement Weather Days pamphlet.

Sometimes individual routes are cancelled, independent of any full corridor cancellations. Operators will also post the information on our Delays and Cancellations page.

When transportation is cancelled in the morning, it will not be provided in the afternoon. All cancellations, whether by corridor or by individual route, are effective for the entire day.

No, when transportation is cancelled in the morning, it will not be provided in the afternoon. All bus cancellations, whether by corridor or by individual route, are effective for the entire day.

Impending weather conditions are a factor in the morning cancellation decisions: storms expected to coincide with afternoon bus runs may result in a full-day cancellation of service. However, if the forecast seems to allow for both morning and afternoon runs, service will proceed as usual and conditions will continue to be monitored.

There are contingency plans in place, should weather conditions worsen during the school day to the point where afternoon transportation would be affected. Parents/guardians will be contacted if transportation is being altered as part of these plans.

You can check online. However, you need to know your bus route number first, and you may also need to know your weather zone.

Operators post all delays of 15 minutes or more online.

Operators must post all delays of 15 minutes or more online. If the delay you experienced was greater than 15 minutes and was not posted online, please contact the NPSSTS (preferably by e-mail at info@npssts.ca) with details (i.e. your route number, time of delay, etc.) so that we may conduct an investigation.