Frustration with school transport: Janik also wants school buses for Starnberg

Created: 09/20/2022, 11:00 am

By: Peter Schiebel

Starnberg's Mayor Patrick Janik wants to reintroduce school buses for the elementary school (symbol image).

© Stefan Sauer/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

One year after the reintroduction of school buses at the Söcking and Percha elementary schools, Mayor Patrick Janik now wants to run his own lines again at the Starnberg elementary school.

He cites the unreliability of public transport buses as the reason.

Starnberg – The new school year is only a week old, but some parents of primary school children in Starnberg are already frustrated.

The reason for this is the school transport with public buses.

Above all, line 904 causes trouble, with which children from Leutstetten and from the Starnberger Wiese drive to the north station and from there walk to the elementary school on Ferdinand-Maria-Straße.

On Thursday, this bus, which left Leutstetten at 7:23 a.m., failed again.

This was the case several times before the summer holidays.

Mayor Patrick Janik now wants to pull the ripcord.

"We have to realize that the MVV cannot guarantee school transport for the foreseeable future," he says in an interview with Starnberger Merkur.

That is why he will propose to the city council that the Starnberg primary school should have its own school buses again.

Janik: "The school transport needs a maximum degree of reliability."

School buses in Starnberg were abolished in the summer of 2015

In the summer of 2015, the city council decided, at the suggestion of the then mayor Eva John, to abolish the school buses in Starnberg and instead to use the public bus network to transport schoolchildren.

The first correction followed a year ago: Since the beginning of the 2021/22 school year, the Söcking and Percha primary schools have had their own school bus routes again.

After a bit of a hitch at first, the system now seems to be working smoothly.

For the primary school in Starnberg, the 901, 903, 904 and 951 routes have been used to transport schoolchildren.

In principle, the public transport connection is very good, emphasizes Janik.

But: "The system obviously doesn't work unless someone can do something about it." The bus companies are suffering from an increasing shortage of skilled workers, which repeatedly leads to the cancellation of trips.

District Administrator Stefan Frey has therefore already announced a crisis meeting with those responsible (we reported).

costs in the six figures

Due to the circumstances, Janik does not want to criticize the district, which is responsible for providing the lines.

He also protects the city council.

A year ago, when he spoke out against the Starnberg elementary school having its own school buses, the driver misery had not yet existed.

Janik accepts that the city will incur six-figure costs as a result of the changeover.

Janik says he's a big fan of distinguishing between voluntary work and mandatory tasks.

And the school transport is "originally our task that we have to fulfill".

The students in the first and second grades in particular are still too young to ride the bus alone – especially when there are problems.

If the city council follows his suggestion, it will probably take until the end of the year in February 2023 to implement it.

After all, the service must first be advertised in detail.

Elementary school Starnberg: "It's pure stress for children when the bus doesn't come"

Nicole Bannert, the headmistress of the elementary school, has met with full approval of Janik's suggestion.

In principle, she thinks it's good if children get used to the normal bus system, she says - but only on the condition that it works.

"But that's not the case," emphasizes Bannert.

She pointed out the grievances before the summer holidays, she says.

"Unfortunately it didn't work.

It just doesn't work that way."

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She also criticizes the lack of communication with the bus companies.

The school often learns with a delay that bus trips have been cancelled.

And quite apart from that: "It's pure stress for the children when the bus doesn't come." Incidentally, that doesn't just happen in the morning, but also at midday, for example, when children want to go to the St. Nikolaus daycare center at the forest playground - with consequences for the hoard.

He only gets money when the children are there too.

Nicole Bannert: "It also has a rat tail attached to it."