School bus failure in Alfdorf: Chaos for children from Rienharz!

School bus failure in Alfdorf: Chaos for children from Rienharz!

In Alfdorf, changes to school bus traffic are imminent, which will particularly affect children from Rienharz and the surrounding towns. From August, line 259, which transported students from Rienharz, Burgholz, Mannholz, Höldis and Brend to school in Welzheim, will no longer be served. Mayor Ronald Krötz described this as “great excitement” at the local council meeting. The city of Welzheim, as the school authority responsible for transporting these children, is now faced with new challenges. Loud Gmünder daily post District spokeswoman Martina Keck confirmed that lines 258 and 259 will no longer be available due to the low number of students. A minimum number of three students per line must be achieved, which was not the case. A total of five students are affected by the canceled lines.

Daniel Wiedmann, head of public transport and school transport, is currently checking the accuracy of the number of students and the need for the lines. There are two possible solutions: Either the school authority organizes transport through a service provider, with the costs being reimbursed by the district, or the number of students must be increased to ensure that the routes can be resumed.

Consequences of the change for affected students

The changes in bus transport also have an impact on the driving style of the affected students. In the future, the students from Rienharz will have to travel via Alfdorf to Welzheim, with a transfer time of only two minutes to school bus 266A. Mayor Krötz criticized this short transfer time as unreasonable. However, Daniel Wiedmann assured that the connection of bus 266A will definitely wait. There is an alternative transfer option at the Pfahlbronn Lorcher Straße stop with a ten-minute transfer time. Students also have the option of using line 266 directly, which loops through Alfdorf and then returns to Welzheim. It is also being examined whether the bus in Welzheim can stop at the school center or at the church square in order to give the students a shorter route to school.

In addition to these changes, the district is planning extensive savings in the area of ​​public transport and school transport in view of financial bottlenecks. On December 17th, the district council will decide on the austerity course, which will save a total of 2.5 million euros. Of this, 500,000 euros goes to school transport. Loud Swabian Post The savings also include cancellations of direct bus services to vocational schools and a general reduction in timetable kilometers by up to 2%. The majority of the parliamentary groups in the district council expressed regret about the cuts, but also signaled their approval of the planned measures.