Transportation

CONTACT INFORMATION

RETSD Transportation Department
Phone: 204.669.0202
transportation@retsd.mb.ca

BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

Due to the significant volume of calls and emails our department receives at the beginning of the school year, please read the below carefully:

• To access transportation information (including transfer points) for your child who is eligible for transportation and whose application has been processed, please log in to the parent/student portal. Then, click on the name of your child and in the top left menu, click Transportation. This will display the details you require. If you are unable to access this information, please ensure your device is fully updated and try logging in a second time. If you are still unable to gain access, contact your child’s school and they will provide you with the details. Please check for updates on your child’s routing, as changes may occur in the first few weeks of school.  
• If your address or the daycare location for your child has changed, please fill out a Transportation Request: Regular (Form A). Applications take three to four business days to process. We advise that you keep checking the parent/student portal for busing information once your application has been submitted.
• If you have concerns regarding your child's bus transportation and/or their pickup or drop-off location, we kindly request that you get in touch with us towards the end of September or early October. However, if you have children from the same home address who attend the same school and are assigned to different buses or dropped off at varying stops, please contact our router by either phone or email (listed at the top of the page).
• If you're calling regarding your fee-for-service application, please refer to the fee-for-service information letter sent out in June. If you're submitting a new application, please send it to the fee-for-service email: transportationfee@retsd.mb.ca
• For eligibility questions, please refer to Policy EEA or Policy EEA-R or contact our router by either phone or email (listed at the top of the page).

GENERAL INFORMATION

River East Transcona has one of the largest transportation departments in Manitoba, operating 82 school buses and safely transporting an average of 4,000 students over 1.3 million kilometres per year.

To determine whether your child is eligible for busing, refer to Policy EEA. Generally, all K–Grade 6 students and rural students in Grades 7–12 who reside more than 1.6 km from their designated school are eligible for transportation. To learn more about how to apply for busing and about our fee-for-service busing option, read Policy EEA-R.

Once you have determined your child's busing option, download, print, and complete the appropriate registration form from the menu on the left. Use the Transportation Request: Regular (Form A) for regular transportation requests and use a Transportation Request: Fee-for-Service (Form B) if you are applying to pay for bus service. Please be aware that it may take three to four business days to process your Transportation Request: Regular (Form A).

If you have questions regarding eligibility, contact the transportation department by either phone or email (listed at the top of the page).

BUS CANCELLATIONS

Sometimes, severe weather causes us to cancel buses. 

If buses are cancelled, we will post on Twitter at @RETSDtransport. As well, a cancellation alert will appear at the top of the home page of this website. If we have not announced or posted a cancellation alert by 6:45 a.m., buses are running.

If transportation is cancelled in the morning, this cancellation will apply for the whole day.

The general rule is if the actual temperature at The Forks (as posted by Environment Canada at about 6:10 a.m.) reaches or exceeds -35°C or the wind chill reaches or exceeds -45°C, we cancel buses for the whole day, but schools usually remain open. All metro Winnipeg school divisions follow one system, based on this rule.

Major radio stations and local television stations will also announce busing cancellations (they usually broadcast cancellations about every 15 minutes).