2023-04-21 15:51:21
“It sent shivers down my spine,” testifies a parent of a student from the Hippolyte Rémy college in Coulommiers at the sight of the coach. Fifty students and five accompanying teachers were to leave early in the morning on Sunday April 16 for five days in Valencia, Spain. But they stayed in the parking lot.
On the program: discovery of the city and its architecture, visit of museums and exhibitions in the surroundings as well as a tasting of typical products of the region. In any case, this is what the travel agency Alter Rumbo has promised to families. A trip at 295 euros per student plus 100 euros for transport per person, ie a minimum total cost of 19,750 euros.
On the morning of departure, the fifty families had to wait in front of the establishment before a white coach with no apparent company name arrived an hour late and its driver holding his phone in his hand. “Me, it already gave me a very bad impression right away”, testifies the parent of the student.
In the rush and the stress of the delay, the group of students and the five teachers begin to board the coach. This was without counting the warnings of several parents who immediately sounded the alarm.
A technical inspection sticker corresponding to another vehicle, frayed and faulty seat belts, broken suspension supports, holes in the bodywork, broken rear lights, deplorable hygiene conditions inside the coach and wiper blades that are only held together by a plastic tie: the parents immediately notified the police in order to prevent their departure.
The travel agency hired another carrier
According to the travel package offered to the parents of students, this is the bus that had to swallow my 1,430 km round trip from Coulommiers-Valence as well as travel during the stay in the Valencian region. For the students of the Hippolyte-Rémy college, the trip to the east coast of Spain was stopped in the parking lot. Police officers from the Coulommiers police station immobilized the vehicle and its driver. They drew up five fines, each relating to a specific problem before letting the bus leave empty. Its driver being forced to prove within two months the repairs and the successful passage of the technical control.
According to our information, the bus chartered by the travel agency Alter Rumbo belongs to the company Autocars Roissy Charles de Gaulle. Nevertheless, the registration document of the vehicle is in the name of Travel Car France. Two low-cost transport companies run by one and the same person. And if only one of the two companies publishes its legal notices online, it indicates, in the chapter of the general conditions of sale, two different addresses for its head office. One at 277, rue de la Belle Étoile in Roissy-en-France (Val-d’Oise) and the other at 127, rue Amelot in Paris (XI). Impossible to get an idea of the rolling stock, most of the photos presented come from online image banks showing brand new, immaculate and anonymous coaches.
Informed of the discovery of the string of violations of the carrier commissioned for this stay in Spain, the travel agency organized the postponement of the excursion from May 14 to 19. And hired another carrier. According to our information, the transport will be provided by the company Viabus, based in Poincy (Seine-et-Marne). The price remains unchanged.
Since the beginning of the week, neither the management of the college, nor the management of the departmental services of National Education in Seine-et-Marne, nor the travel agency nor the two transport companies have wished to answer the questions. that we asked them.
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