reportageNIJMEGEN – Only thirty people are still welcome in indoor areas such as restaurants. But every day more than a hundred travelers at the same time board the Nijmegen ‘student bus line’ 10. ‘Dangerous for life’, according to drivers. “Are we going to deliver the corona virus by bus?”
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“Pubs will be closed if guests do not keep to the 1.5 meter distance, almost all rules have been tightened: but what happens on our bus? Some lines are still packed. And that is just possible. I really don’t understand anything about that. ”
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The word is a Breng driver. Like many colleagues, he is concerned about bus transport in the Nijmegen region. Four of them do their talking anonymously. They all share the same fear: that the bus will serve as a superpreader of the corona virus. “Strangers are very close to each other. Irresponsible.”
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‘120 to 130 travelers together’
Student transport is bulging everywhere
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Overcrowded buses are not a typical Nijmegen problem in corona time. Passenger organization Rover sees buses and trains across the country ‘where space is limited’. Especially in student cities it is often crowded, says a spokesman. “Take Wageningen, where you have a university, just like in Nijmegen. The vehicles there are also regularly full. ” According to the FNV trade union, drivers see that in addition to line 10 in Nijmegen, the bus lines 352 and 51 between Wageningen and Arnhem are regularly ‘packed’.
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It remains busy in the city and regional buses around Nijmegen. For example, on line 2 (Sint Maartenskliniek – Lindenholt), line 5 (Groesbeek – Beuningen) and line 6 (Neerbosch – East Dukenburg), the drivers see it regularly. Line 10 is the biggest pain point for them. In the shuttle between Nijmegen central and Heyendaal station, all seating and standing places would regularly be occupied. “Then you have 120 to 130 travelers like herrings in a barrel. They wear masks, but they are on top of each other. You can hear some coughing. Dangerous to life. ”
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The Heyendaalshuttle is the student aorta between the station and the campus from Radboud University and Arnhem Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences (HAN). Although a lot of education takes place digitally, the buses are not getting emptier, according to Tuesday morning. At the special line 10 pick-up point in front of the central station, students crowd each other every ten minutes for a seat in the harmonica bus. In the 08:39 shuttle there is no longer any seating or standing space left.
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