A BUS company newly awarded a multi-million-pound contract failed to pick up a number of pupils on their first day of secondary school in Newport yesterday.

New Adventure Travel (NAT), a Cardiff based company, were awarded the contract for secondary school children to and from school from this September. Newport Transport lost out on the contract it had for the route which they have previously run for more than a decade.

Yesterday, Year 7 pupils from St Joseph’s RC High School were starting their first day, of secondary school but NAT buses failed to pick up a number of pupils from their stops.

Emma Johnson, of Fforest Glade, said her son Max who started his first day the school was left waiting at Victoria Avenue.

She said: “We arrived in plenty of time for the bus, which picks up at 7.51am, on Victoria Avenue by 8.20am, there was still no bus. There were three other 11-year-olds starting school for the first time at our stop. They were nervous enough, without worrying if the bus was going to turn up.”

Mrs Johnson said the school was only open for first year pupils yesterday, and on a normal school day there would be around 20 pupils using the stop for the N1 St Joseph’s school bus.

She said that she and another parent waited with the children and decided to flag another NAT bus, the 645, which was on its way to start its route on Christchurch Road.

She said: “We were definitely at the right stop. The driver was from a different route but allowed the children on.”

The mother-of-two has spoken with other parents who drove their children to the school as the bus didn’t turn up to pick up at Edward VII Avenue.

She said: “It is so difficult to get any information out of NAT, there have been no real bus routes issued, only vague descriptions on their website.

“I phoned NAT, who said the driver wasn’t from Newport – they said he got lost and missed half of the stops.

“I don’t think there was enough planning involved. It should have been a nice straightforward first day at school, not this unnecessary circus of missed buses and abandoned children.”

Mrs Johnson said she phoned the council to speak with someone from the school transport team, but the contact centre operator said no one was available and it was an operational matter with NAT.

She said: “As far as I’m concerned it’s the council’s job to make sure children have transport to school. I think the buck stops with the council.”

Kevyn Jones, the managing director of NAT, said: “We acknowledge that there has been a small number of children who experienced some problems with their school transport this morning and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“As the new transport provider for these students, it was inevitable there would be some teething issues at the start of term, but our understanding from our contacts at the schools is that this has been no worse than in previous years.”

A Newport City council spokeswoman said: “Newport City Council would like to apologise to any child or parent that experienced problems with school transport today.

“However, we have spoken to the school and it has been confirmed that there were no more issues than usually occur on the first day of term.”