HALIFAX -- The new school year will bring a significant change to school busing in the Halifax area as two new companies are being hired to provide student transportation.

The province of Nova Scotia decided to end Stock Transportation's monopoly on service after complaints about safety and scheduling.

Stock will continue to provide some service, but when school starts in the fall, two new companies will be busing students to and from class in the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Jacob Ritchie of the Halifax Regional Centre For Education (HRCE) said the new companies are Southland Transportation Ltd., Student Transportation Of Canada Inc., and the newly renamed National Passenger Services of Canada -- formerly known as Stock Transportation.

Bus routes have been divided into four packages that geographically link families of schools.

Under the new contracts, the HRCE says it will take over responsibility for routing the buses and communicating with families.

"We have every confidence in the three service providers that will be working in our community for next year," said Elwin Leroux of the HRCE.

Two of the three companies that have been awarded contracts are new service providers for the area.

"We're now a coast-to-coast company," said Murray Glass of Southland Transportation."We started in 1957 in Red Deer, Alta., and we've grown coast-to-coast, so we take a lot of pride in that."

Chris Harwood of Student Transportation of Canada Inc., described the new contract as "a wonderful opportunity."

"We have been intrigued with the Halifax market for quite some time now," Harwood said.

National Passenger Services, also known as Stock Transportation, currently provides the busing services in Halifax.

Their contract was cancelled last year, just three years into a 10-year contract.

"That 10-year agreement had the ability to cancel the contract with a year's notice in any year with no financial penalty to either side," Ritchie said.

Starting in September, Stock will now provide the transportation for students with special needs.

"We were hoping for more," said Pat Meagher of Stock Transportation."We're happy with what we got. The special needs section is 71 routes, so we're very excited to provide that service and we're very excited to let the parents know that we're going to be very focused."

But the union that represents hundreds of bus drivers, monitors, and mechanics who work at Stock say they are concerned.

"From my understanding of the RFP, what they have to do was respect the collective agreement, all the rights and privileges within it," said NSGEU president Jason MacLean. "That's not to say that they have to have them be unionized. But they have to pay them the same rates and have the same rules set up for them to come in here."

The new contracts are for five years with the option for a two-year extension.

For the remainder of this school year, all busing in the Halifax Regional Municipality will continue to be provided by Stock Transportation.