Durham Student Transportation Services (DSTS) cancelled all school buses across Durham Region on Wednesday, December 10, 2025 — including Zone 4, which covers Ajax — because of road conditions resulting from inclement weather, while both school boards kept classrooms open. The morning notices left many Ajax families scrambling to find alternate rides or change supervision plans for students who normally take the bus.
The cancellation was announced shortly after 6 a.m., with the Durham Catholic District School Board posting: “Durham Student Transportation Services has cancelled buses in all zones on Wednesday, December 10, 2025… due to road conditions resulting in inclement weather,” and the Durham District School Board posting a matching alert that buses would not operate in the morning or afternoon. DurhamRegion.com also reported the DSTS announcement the same morning.
DSTS says it begins monitoring conditions as early as 4:30 a.m., gathering input from municipal road crews, weather observers and bus operators, and reviews that information (typically before 6 a.m.) before contacting representatives of both boards with a recommendation. Its inclement‑weather guidance notes that when buses are cancelled the message applies for the entire day, and that families who bring children to school in the morning are responsible for picking them up at dismissal.
For Ajax families, the practical fallout was immediate. Parents and caregivers who normally rely on yellow buses were asked to arrange alternate transportation, alter work schedules, or make supervision plans at home. Schools remained open, and DSTS and the boards reminded families that if they drop off their children they are responsible for picking them up at the end of the day when bus service is cancelled.
DSTS directs parents to its Family Portal, automated phone line and local media for updates. The authority’s webpage also explains the zone system — used because weather and road conditions can vary across Durham — and lists the channels families should check on bad‑weather mornings.
Full‑day cancellations are not unusual in winter, but the decision came amid a year of heightened attention to Durham’s school‑bus service. Earlier in 2025, labour tensions and potential work stoppages among some bus drivers and contractors raised concerns about service reliability, and Ajax parents have previously complained about long rides, route changes and communication problems. The Dec. 10 notices and DSTS cited road conditions as the reason for this cancellation; there was no indication in those notices that the decision was related to labour action.
The boards and DSTS did not issue any reversal of the Dec. 10 cancellation; families were advised to assume the cancellation applied to both the morning and the afternoon runs. Parents with questions were directed to their school boards’ communications pages and DSTS’s contact lines for more information.
