Mothers from the municipality of Waldkirchen in the Waldviertel (Lower Austria) complain about poorly coordinated travel times for school children. There were supposed to be ghost buses running through the area, but there weren’t enough departure times for the school buses. Last year there were the same problems. The Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region wanted more than 12,000 euros for an extra primary school bus.
The municipality of Waldkirchen in the Waldviertel has less than 500 inhabitants. There in primary school, some children are out at 11:45 three times a week and have to wait until 13:04 for the bus that goes to the surrounding villages. “That’s why the parents pick up the children three times a week by car. Free travel for students is a nice word, but with us not after the end of the lesson,” criticizes an affected mother.
The connection is also missing in the school city
Another mother complains about the regular services of the higher schools in the district town of Waidhofen an der Thaya. Because even there, the timetable of the students of Waldkirchen is not taken into account. The problem is not new: as early as 2021, the municipality tried to get a school bus.
“School buses instead of ghost buses!”
The Verkehrsverbund Ostregion (VOR) responded with an offer: the municipality had to pay more than 12,000 euros for the extra bus. “Empty ghost buses keep coming at me, but no bus can take my primary school child home,” says the outraged mother.
“Big challenge”
“In addition to peaks in demand in the morning, we have to cover basic needs,” says VOR spokesman Georg Huemer. It is more economical to let the large buses, which are full in the morning, continue to drive. “Public transport is a major challenge, especially in sparsely populated areas.”
New models
“There are initiatives for this, such as the smart call sharing taxi, which are being developed in some regions,” says Huemer. Such a project only started on Monday in Melk. In the Waldviertel, however, this can take years.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
