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Luxembourg's Ministry of Mobility and Public Works and Ministry of Education, Children and Youth have announced organisational changes to school transport to ensure compliance with the new COVID-19-related health measures.
To respond to the current challenges, the respective ministries have decided to strengthen school transport, in terms of bus journeys and human resources.
In order to be able to assess the situation and the increased needs in the field during this extraordinary start to the school year, the Public Transport Department of the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works carried out checks on the majority of RGTR school lines serving public campuses and secondary schools across the country. Out of 383 school bus journeys inspected, 37 had standing passengers.
To improve this situation, five of these school bus journeys will be reinforced with additional bus journeys. For the other 32 races, buses with a higher capacity will be used.
These reinforcements will be carried out from 9 November 2020, as soon as classes resume after the All Saints holidays.
In addition to increasing capacity to reduce the number of passengers on bus journeys, the ministries plan to strengthen school transport with additional human resources. Several bus drvers have been unable to work because they contracted the virus, were in quarantine or were on family leave.
As such, the Mobility Ministry will partially reduce the RGTR's offer during off-peak hours, both during the week and on weekends. The ministry also decided to have recourse, if needed, to a reserve of bus drivers likely to be made available by the Luxair group and to launch an analysis also aimed at being able to use drivers from the Luxembourg Army.
