From 1 October 2016, all students at Luxembourg secondary schools will benefit from free public transport through the use of "myCard".
The new initiative was announced by Minister of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, and Minister of Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch, on Friday.
From October, the "myCard élève", established by secondary schools, will be accepted on all forms of public transport, benefitting all Luxembourg public schools students, as well as those in private and international schools, those without their own income, and those in training. The age will vary case by case, without exceeding the age of 27.
The myCard established for university or post-graduate students will not be covered by this measure, and these students will instead continue to bring a Jumbokaart for trips outside of their learning.
Free school transport for pupils attending post-primary education was first introduced in 1973 but until now was limited to journeys between home and school.
These restrictions however incurred practical difficulties, as they did not take into account situations in which students had more than one residence, for example those with divorced parents, in the custody of another family member, or registered for half-board; students taking part in extracurricular activities; and students in vocational training travelling to a company as part of an intership or apprenticeship.
The initiative has now been expanded to include all types of trips for free.
The myCard was introduced in 2007, and is now used for various authentification and electronic payment processes, such as transport card; access to buildings, classrooms and school carparks; authentification for computer access; electronic payment in school canteens and cafeterias; photocopy payments; books borrowed from the school library; and access to Bibnet services of the national library.
Photo by myCard
