BOLZANO. “This morning my grandson had to take the shuttle to go to school: neither the first nor the second stopped because they were full. And the child was left in the middle of the street for an hour”, a grandmother protests. A mother echoes her: “Same thing for my son and his friends: at 7:45 they were at the stop and stayed there until 8:20. Alone. We need more security”. And again: “Unfortunately, it also happened to my daughter. She arrived at class at 8:35 and they marked her late in the register. How can this happen?”, asks a father.
It was a chaotic morning for everyone yesterday: the rain, the traffic, the city that stops. It’s nothing new. But for several middle school students “There is a country” – still inside the containers of Drusetto – the odyssey lasted much longer than usual. So much so that in the afternoon there were further about ten reports from families furious about the management of the transport.
“We are aware of the problem that has arisen and have forwarded everything to the School and Mobility Office of the Municipality”, specifies the director Diego Paolizzi, who gets straight to the point, “The inconvenience perhaps arose from the moment in which some trips, the previous year, were practically empty. So on the basis of these statistics, Sasa has remodeled the service, foreseeing a decrease in trips. The problem is that compared to a few months ago we have 30 more students enrolled in the “Ada Negri””.
The route and the lines
In detail, already in 2023, it was decided to establish two lines dedicated to students with the following routes. The red line: Merano junction, via Resia, via Milano, viale Europa, via Sorrento, viale Druso. The blue line: Casanova, via Resia, via Sassari, via Montecassino, via del Ronco, via Sorrento, viale Druso. The route was designed based on the needs that emerged from the data provided by the school office based on the registered residence of the enrolled students. These are additional lines compared to the ordinary trips, which are characterized by the name of the school (“Ada Negri”) written in capital letters and clearly visible on the windshield. But they are not reserved exclusively for students.
Paolizzi is keen to point this out: «Since they are a public transport service, they cannot be defined as private buses», he confirms, «The driver cannot forbid a normal citizen or an elderly person who has to go home to get on the vehicle. For this reason, it can happen that it fills up more than usual on days so affected by traffic». This was the case yesterday: several students saw a bus full of people pass in front of them that for obvious safety reasons did not even think of stopping at the stop. Sasa and the Mobility Office, having analysed this first phase of the school year, will probably work to restore new routes. Especially if the problem were to arise again.
Disabled transport: it’s chaos
With the start of the school year, the problems that emerged in the spring return. This time, however, we are talking about the transportation of students with disabilities and the numerous disservices that have been occurring around the province for over a year.
TeamK reports this, asking for rapid intervention by the provincial council and measures for the supplier, and tells of the incidents that have already occurred in these first three days of school. Missing seats, overburdened drivers, lack of availability at the complaints office. It also happened that at 7:00 pm the previous evening, parents were informed that their disabled child could not be taken to school the following day.
Yesterday, in Bressanone, a teacher personally accompanied a student in a wheelchair home due to the lack of service. “Since the resumption of lessons, I have received similar complaints and reports from exasperated parents,” emphasizes Alex Ploner of TeamK, “The new transport service for disabled students does not seem to have overcome the initial difficulties for which we had been asked for understanding in May. Provincial Councilor Achammer had promised to carefully monitor the situation with the start of school and to intervene immediately if things did not go well. Now is the time to act and any result other than the restoration of a functioning service is unacceptable.”
2024-09-11 05:20:32