School children were left stranded by the roadside in the rain this morning after a daily bus service was cancelled for the day without any prior warning.

The abrupt cancellation left a group of Welcome Bay parents scrambling to get their children to school on time.

Photo: File.

Route 411 of Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Schoolhopper service runs from Welcome Bay Road and through the suburb before dropping children off at Otumoetai Intermediate and Otumoetai College at 8.15am.

But after standing at the bus stop on Osprey Drive for over 30 minutes, Karen McIntyre's daughter Tazmin rung her mum with news that the bus hadn't shown up.

The 13-year-old Otumoetai College student, along with around 16 others, are at the bus stop ahead of a 7.30am pick up each day – one of 15 stops before they reach their destination.

The bus is part of Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Schoolhopper bus network, officially launched this term, after the Ministry of Education pulled its funding for more than 3000 school students at the end of 2014.

With no idea of who to contact, Karen rang Bayline only to be told they aren't involved, but suspect the service has been cancelled for the day.

And it is this lack of communication that doesn't sit well with Karen, who had to drive Tazmin across the city in rush hour traffic.

'There was no forewarning at all,” she says. 'There is no way of contacting anybody at the bus company to see if there are any troubles or what's going on.

'We are lucky to be able to take her over to school but there could be some kids who can't get to school today because of this.”

Karen also rang Otumoetai College about the issue and was told the school 'feels really bad” about the situation, but the bus company doesn't communicate with them on such matters.

Although this is the first issue she has encountered with the bus company, and since the new network began, Karen feels a website or some form of communication should be available to schools and parents should a bus break down or be out of action.

'We both work tomorrow and if this happens, she will have to stay at home,” adds Karen.

Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell says this is a council matter, yet a courtesy call informing the school ahead of today would have been welcomed.

The school is unable to keep records of how many students were on the bus given it is a public service.

Dave says any communication between the bus service and the college would help produce a more succinct operation whereby they could let parents know of any delay to the service.

'If they are not going to run a bus, then I don't want a worried parent wondering there their child is,” he says..

'What worries me is you get a little Year 9 student, at 13-years-old, just left standing there who doesn't have a mobile phone and doesn't know what to do. And you have parent's good faith believing that the bus is running.”

Otumoetai Intermediate principal Henk Popping was also unaware of the situation, and how many students may be late or away from school, but will be investigating the issue with the council.

This morning's no-show is the latest concern over the new bus service after SunLive reported on complaints and concerns regarding bad communication, timetable anomalies, buses not turning up or stopping and children abandoned on the roadside around urban and rural Tauranga.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is investigating the issue and will respond to SunLive this morning.