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Updates on transport isues for European school Mamer

Gregor Prajs
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This is the update that APEEE sent to the parents regarding transport plan for European school Mamer:

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Dear parents

This mail is to update you on the progress of the consultation exercise on school transport. By 1.10.2012 the ATSEE/APEEE/Lux.2 secretariats have received some 182 reply forms. We should like to thank you for your active participation and your constructive suggestions. We have now had opportunity to review these to see which we can implement and how best that can be done. You will understand that as the transport network is a collective system and not an à la carte service, we are not necessarily able to take all individual requests into account, but we have done our best in the circumstances. Your recommendations can be grouped into different types, as follows:

1. Comments relating to ATSEE bus timings.
– A number of these were already taken into account in the 24.9.2012 revision to bus timings.
– Further changes will be introduced with effect from 9.10.2012 to allow remaining buses to arrive by 8.30 at school where possible, in particular timings for bus lines 72A, 72B, 73A, 73B, 79, 83 will change.
– Further changes for lines 75, 77, 81 and 84 are also being considered.
Of course, there could still be circumstances (eg. accidents, roadworks, bad weather) which still delay some buses on some days.

2. Comments relating to ATSEE bus stops on existing routes.
– You will understand that diversions are generally only possible where a number of children are concerned, and have always to be balanced against the time impact on the overall route.
a. Line 64: no extension is possible to Pétange, Soleuvre or Rodange. The stop “Findel” will be replaced by “Am Duerf” for safety reasons.
b. Line 72: suppress stops at Rheinsheim+Guillaume
c. Line 73: Possibility of adding “Binnchen” in Beggen will be examined if pupil numbers justify.
d. Line 75: not possible to add stop “Paul Albrecht”.
e. Line 78/79: routing through Helmsange Mairie/Tricentenaire confirmed with bus company and adding stop at Walferdange Mairie.
f. Line 80: new stop added at Schuttrange/Kreizung.
g. Line 81: suggested rerouting through Itzig is not possible.
h. Line 82: will now start from Heffingen instead of Junglinster.
i. Line 64 or Line 72: Possibility to add a stop at Bertrange City Concorde to link with RGTR lines is being examined.
j. Existing stops on various lines in Holzem, Dippach, Garnich, Bettange/Mess, Capellen, Koerich, Olm may be suppressed, as 2 new bus lines will be created to service these areas.

3. Suggestion to add/remove lines.
a. ATSEE lines 52 and 53 to the Luxembourg 1 school will be combined due to low usage. New timing will be published shortly.
b. A new ATSEE bus line will be added around Mamer commune (South), to service Holzem, Dippach, Garnich, Bettange/Mess (not necessarily in that order). Precise itinerary is being determined with bus company.
c. A new ATSEE bus line is also being considered around Mamer commune (North), to service Mamer Route d’Arlon, Capellen, Koerich, Olm (not necessarily in that order). Precise itinerary is being determined with bus company.

In relation to points 1, 2 and 3 an updated combined timetable will be circulated as soon as circumstances allow. In the meantime, updated single line timetables are being distributed in the buses (departures and arrivals)

4. Comments relating to ATSEE pricing.
a. With immediate effect, a 50% discount will be granted to third and subsequent children from same family travelling on ATSEE buses.
b. In response to widespread request, with immediate effect the ATSEE card will grant possibility to use any ATSEE bus line whether to/from Lux.1 or to/from Lux.2 which means parents and pupils can therefore choose the appropriate travel combinations in the morning/end of school throughout the week. Please note that this increased flexibility means that ATSEE will no longer be able to control whether pupils are getting on the correct bus line, or getting off at the correct stops. Parents are therefore urged to educate their children to ensure they take the correct bus and get on/off at the correct stop.
c. There is no combination possibility with the supervised Navette service between EU institution buildings/the European Schools, as that service is explicitly organised as a door-to-door service to ensure safety of youngest children. Separate subscriptions have to be taken out for that service and for the rest of the ATSEE bus service, the combined total cost of which is still covered for EU officials by the education indemnity entitlement.
d. As far we understand, the “Jobkaart” can now be used on RGTR buses, so parents can accompany children first to school, and then travel on to work.
e. ATSEE will not produce books of tickets, given negative experience at Lux.1 school when this experiment was done some years ago (difficult to control).

5. Comments relating to ATSEE navettes.
a. If no monthly subscription is taken out, an individual ticket has to be paid: although the cost may be reimbursed by employers this is not a free-of-charge service.
b. Now that all children have had an opportunity to inscribe, and the secretariat has been able to process the enrolments, a checklist of the pupils travelling on each navette bus will be made available, and the security guard will be keeping a register of the users on each journey.
c. With immediate effect, the Navette at 18h00 will now leave at 18h10 to allow children participating in extracurricular activities to use it.
d. There is no authority to construct bicycle racks on the pavement outside the Lux.1 school so, unfortunately, children cannot cycle there and then take the bus.
e. No stop will be added at “Prince Félix” before leaving Kirchberg in the morning. Parents living there are asked to transport pupils either to EIB, or to Eurostat, or to CDCE, or to European School.
f. No stop will be added at “Glacis” on way to Lux.2 school from Kirchberg in the morning. Parents are asked to transport pupils to LTC and take ATSEE buses, or to Kirchberg/Gasperich/OPOCE to take ATSEE navette.
g. On return journey, no stop will be added at EIB unless EIB authorises waiting area within the building. Similarly, no stop will be added at ECJ unless ECJ authorises waiting area within the building and bus access on the parvis.
h. On return journey, no stop will be added at ESTAT unless ESTAT authorises waiting area within the building, or parents arrange a waiting area inside Auchan gallery. The morning navette from ESTAT will move from no.18 bus stop Rue Alphonse Weicker (in front of Auchan) to Rue Carlo Hemmer (between Auchan and Foire d’Expositions) for safety reasons (blockage no.18 bus, car overtaking, pedestrians).
i. A return navette to OPOCE and Goldbell may be organised if child numbers are confirmed, responsibility for costs are clarified and waiting area inside building is authorised. Morning navettes from Goldbell and OPOCE will be combined, due to low pupil numbers.

New timing for navettes will be published shortly.

6. Comments relating to supervision
a. There are no bus shelters at Lux.2 school platforms. This will be discussed with Luxembourg authorities.
b. Numbering of platforms at Lux.2 school has been made easier for pupils to understand (colour coding).
c. There will be no adult supervisor on ATSEE buses, only on the ATSEE navette service. Older pupils who travel some/all of the journey on ATSEE buses will continue to help the driver monitor younger children, but they are students not adults, and cannot be held responsible for the safety of the young ones.
d. Parents are not allowed on the ATSEE navettes, or on the ATSEE buses. This was only allowed on the first day of the school year so that parents could see how the system worked.
e. 30 minute waiting time after arrival at Lux.1 school will not be extended. However a new system will be applied so that parents waiting at the bus stop will be able to collect children directly from the security guard at the door to the bus (the children will be kept on the bus during this time).
f. Children in CPE who want to take the 16h45 navette are now collected from the CPE and accompanied to the bus.
g. Children attending periscolaire programme whose course finishes between 16h15 and 16h30, and who are in the designated waiting area at the Primary Building, will be accompanied out to the 16h45 navette. The same applies for pupils whose periscolaire course finishes between 17h45 and 18h00 who want to take the 18h10 navette.
h. FAPEEEL will look into the possibility of a supervisor for transfers between CPE and periscolaire activities, for the youngest children, potentially allowing more children to use the periscolaire programme and catch the navettes.

7. Communication
a. Parents are asked to recognise that ATSEE and APEEE persons involved in the mobility plan are volunteers who undertake this task on top of busy work and private lives in the best interest of the children and the good functioning of the schools and the EU institutions in Luxembourg. They are not always able to respond immediately to queries.
b. ATSEE website and APEEE websites will be updated with the latest user guidelines when resources permit. These will be translated into French.

8. Comments relating to public buses and communal buses
a. Luxembourg authorities will again be asked to ensure that RGTR bus lines are extended onto the school site, as originally agreed.
b. Luxembourg authorities will also be asked about possibility for VdL lines 6 and 7 to be extended onto the school site.

9. Comments relating to cars
a. The expected date for Flyover to be finished is between January and March 2013.
b. To build additional car parking space at the Lux.2 school, either at ground level or multi-storey parking, will require planning permission.
c. Parents are urged to recognise that the school car park is not a long stay P+R service for the no.8 bus or other services. Use of the limited spaces in this way blocks the intended use for temporary visitors, in particular the “kiss and go” zones.
d. Parents are urged not to park in the secondary “kiss and go” zone if they are taking children into the nursery school. There is a specific nursery school parking area.

10. Comments relating to bicycles and pedestrians
a. There are no resources to put a pedestrian crossing guard on every zebra crossing inside the school campus, or on the crossings near the roundabouts. Security guards do however supervise children near the bus platforms.
b. Bertrange commune is gradually putting in place its own Vel-OH bicycle hire concept (different to the VdL one which extends up to Strassen). A stop is eventually anticipated near the school.
c. Bertrange commune is gradually improving bicycle paths in the commune, including those near to the school.
d. Vélobus and Pédibus initiatives require volunteers to be found who are available every day during termtime. Potential volunteers for, and residents who want to use, such schemes to the Lux.2 school from Strassen, Bertrange or Mamer should contact Strassen Commune, Bertrange Commune or Mamer Commune directly.

11. Comments relating to trains
a. Some 100 pupils from Lux.2 school secondary cycle currently use the train.
b. The train is not considered suitable for younger children unless their parents are also present.
c. It is unlikely to be possible to increase the frequency of trains in the morning, or to change the timings in the morning (there is an InterCity train which leaves Lux.Gare at 8.20). This possibility will nevertheless be checked with the Luxembourg authorities.
d. After the end of school it is not possible for the school to leave the gate nearest the train station open for parents to come and collect pupils from CPE as there is no budget for a security guard to monitor persons entering and leaving.

All children attending the CPE Bertrange/Mamer can use the shuttle at 4.45 or 6 pm organised by the ATSEE going to the EEl I at Kirchberg

Gregor Prajs
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Message from CPE:

Dear parents,

Few days after the opening of the new European school and of the CPE in Bertrange/Mamer, after some first experience as well as in view of some new arrangements provided for by ATSEE (Association de Transport des Elèves des Ecoles Européennes), we come back to you with some additional information about the options of transport for children leaving the CPE in Bertrange/Mamer at the end of the day.

OIL further analysed the impact of the transport on the security of children and on the functioning of the CPE, as well as the question of responsibility. The rules have been reviewed as follows:

SHUTTLE TO KIRCHBERG (EUROPEAN SCHOOL I)

All children attending the CPE in Bertrange/Mamer can use the shuttle at 4.45 or 6 p.m. organised by the ATSEE going to the European school I at Kirchberg. As the shuttle now stops directly in front of the CPE building, both children of the Garderie and of the Study and Recreation Centre (CEL) can be escorted to the shuttle, as long as the parents have signed up for this service and have filled in the respective form. The responsibility of the CPE ends as soon as the child is handed over to the person who will accompany them on the bus.

You can download forum here.

Parents interested by this optionof transport are required to fill in the annexed form “Autorisation de sortie pour l’utilisation de la navette de 16h45 ou 18h00 vers l’école européenne du Kirchberg” and return it, dully signed, to the administration of the CPE (cpe@ec.europa.eu). The deadline for submission is 26 September 2012 and children will be able to use the shuttle as of Monday the 1 October 2012.

Children already using the shuttles continue to do so in the current mode, their parents are nevertheless asked to fill in the new form to confirm or change the times of departure, according to the new rules.

SCHOOL BUSSES, CITY BUS OR TRAIN

Children in the secondary school may travel to and from the CPE alone. They can use the school busses organised by ATSEE, city bus or train without specific permission.

As for the primary school children, OIL actively considers the option to let them leave the CPE to take a bus or train on their own, on the basis of a specific permission of parents. Such a possibility would nevertheless require a change of the Rules on admission to and operation of the CPE establishments. Therefore, an opinion of CCPE (Comité du Centre polyvalent de l´Enfance) will be requested at its next meeting on 28 September 2012. Parents will be informed about the final decision and conditions next week.

GENERAL CONDITIONS

Choice on the transport “regime” is made for the whole school year and can only be changed in duly justified cases.
A differentiated regime per week is possible (the time of departure can differ from one day to another) but must be stable (same every week) throughout the year. Ad hoc changes cannot be accepted unless parents pick up their child themselves before departure of the shuttle.
Children taking the shuttle of 4.45 on the long school days (Monday for Garderie children and Monday and Wednesday for CEL children) take it directly after school, they do not come to the CPE on those days.
The CPE provides no guarantee that CEL children leaving at 4.30 p.m. have been able to do all their homework. These children might not be able to eat their afternoon snack, served at this same hour.
Children taking part in outside activities will not be able to take the 4.45 p.m. shuttle on the days concerned. They will automatically use the shuttle at 6 p.m.
In case of shared custody, the signature of one parent on the form is considered to represent the will of both of the parents.
Requests sent outside the general enrolment period (26 September) will be implemented at the earliest on the second working day following reception of the request in the mailbox of the CPE. A written confirmation of the starting date will be sent to the parents by e-mail.
The system and its implementation will be evaluated in the course of the school year. The CPE Administration reserves the right to review its policy and general conditions on the basis of this evaluation.
***

We understand that the transport organised by ATSEE facilitates the situation of a number of families and hope that the above rules contribute to better conciliation of their private and professional life.

On the other hand, collecting of children by their own parents remains, especially in case of the very young ones, the best option in terms of security and of the personal contact with their educator.

Please consider your choice carefully, taking into account the age and level of maturity of your child as well as all possible risks.

Finally, we take the occasion to inform you that your jobkaart is as of now valid also on the train to the station Mamer-Lycée. For more information, please contact OIL-JOBKAART@ec.europa.eu.

Best regards,

Lenka Nýdrlová
CPE Administrator

European school Mamer – the real reason why it was built there

Gregor Prajs
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The real reason why we have school in Mamer was finally revealed: your build school, force parents and children to use this school and then build a lot of expensive apartments near the school.

100 m2 of land costs 100.000€ in Mamer   (5 years ago it was 40.000€).

Article in Point 24

ATSEE Timetable Update – Stay Informed and On Schedule!

Gregor Prajs
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2

Since the start of the school year, the timetable of buses and navettes to Mamer has undergone a number of modifications in an attempt to improve the service. Please find enclosed the latest version of the timetable, which will be effective from Monday 24/09/2012.

Warning: in addition to changes of the departure times and the list of stops, some of the platform numbers at the school have also been changed.

In part these changes reflect suggestions received during the ongoing consultation exercise which could already be implemented. Other suggestions are still being reviewed and will be discussed with the relevant authorities shortly.

New timetable

Blondes v Brunettes: How European School in Luxembourg Got Divided

Gregor Prajs
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Blondes v Brunettes: How European School in Luxembourg Got Divided

This week the European School Non-Discrimination Campaign (ESNDC), a group of parents at Luxembourg’s new ‘Lux II’ school built outside of the city’s limits, have lodged an administrative appeal with the Chambre de Recours, a court specifically created to deal with disputes concerning the European School system.

The parents allege language, nationality, ethnic origin, property status and sex discrimination. They and their children face much longer commutes and are therefore more tired and have less leisure time and family life. Because of the distance between work and school, the parents find it much harder to participate in extra-curricular activities, and so their children can’t do them. Unlike their European School I peers, daytime school concerts and parent-teacher meetings are also a thing of the past.

To try to make up for some of the lost time, many parents have changed their working conditions, reducing their hours (and their salaries) to 80% or 90%. Others have converted some of their working days to teleworking to provide some flexibility. For many who use the bus services and for everyone who uses their car, no compensation has been offered for the additional transport costs. The new school is heavily policed, partly because of a drug-dealing problem at the nearby secondary school. Large numbers of security and surveillance staff have been recruited to reduce the risks caused to young children by the transport issues and by the structure of the new school, which, because of its lack of enclosure and the presence of multiple flights of steps, is inherently unsuitable for young children.

Many parents assigned to the new school have already withdrawn their children. If they can afford it, they have to transfer to private schools: if they can’t, to national schools, which only work if the children speak good French, but it is too tough a change otherwise.

Against the parents’ wishes, the children at the original Kirchberg site of the European School have been segregated ‘vertically’ according to language and residential status. Those from a less-favored set of south-eastern European Member States have been sent to the new out-of-town school. Those who speak a set of favored languages remain at the site where most of their parents work at the EU institutions. As of this September, if you are blond, you are more likely to attend the ‘Lux I’ school in Kirchberg – it has been reserved essentially for children who speak Finnish and its neighbouring languages – Swedish, the Baltic languages, Polish, Dutch and Flemish. Curiously, the deputy headmaster of the school at the time of the favoured-less favoured division, and who is currently the General Secretary of the European Schools, is Finnish.

On the other hand, if you are a brunette, you are more likely to be assigned to the ‘Lux II’ site – i.e. if you are from Italy, Greece, Hungary, Romania or from the post-Yugoslav states.

To soften this fair-dark complexion divide, a group of so-called ‘vehicular languages’ (English, French and German) is based at both sites. The criterion for dividing these ‘vehicular’ children is whether you live in Kirchberg’s expensive proximity or in more distant locations where lower-paid workers seek affordable accommodation. The ‘vehicular’ children of those lower-paid workers now face daily commutes of up to 3 hours to get to the Lux II site.

A further blurring of the hair-color divide has been achieved by allowing Iberian’s to stay at Kirchberg: the enormous Portuguese population in Luxembourg means they have a lot of clout in local politics. In a gesture of balance and fairness, one Nordic language had to be sacrificed to the out-of-town site, so the fair Danes paid the price of having no political clout.

How could this have happened, given that the EU is supposed to promote equality and solidarity?

For many years the EU institutions put pressure on the Luxembourg government to build a second European School to cater for the growing number of EU workers in the city. The natural site for that second school was opposite the original school, where there is nothing but rolling fields. Instead, the Luxembourg government, and property developers close to it, saw the need for a new school as a huge development opportunity. It proposed a site in Mamer, a neighbouring town.

The parents protested but were ignored. The new site was accepted by the EU institutions, even though this contravened the Decision of the Member States of 8 April 1965, confirmed in Edinburgh in 1992, according to which Luxembourg EU institutions (the Commission provides the after-school care services) have to be located within the city limits. To make matters worse, the Luxembourg government insisted on a vertical split of the school children because the property developers needed young children at the site: by locating crèche, pre-school, primary school and after-school care facilities there, they knew that this would force those families who could afford it to move into the area, driving up property prices and facilitating the financing of new apartment blocks.

In 2004, parents filed a lawsuit against these decisions, contending that if the location couldn’t be changed, it should be exclusively for secondary school students to prevent discrimination and alleviate the impact on the quality of life of EU workers. They proposed a ‘horizontal’ division of the school, enabling all EU staff and their children to benefit from a junior school in Kirchberg while jointly addressing the challenges posed by a senior school located far from their workplace. This arrangement would eliminate the necessity to relocate to Mamer as older children wouldn’t require parental accompaniment to school. Essentially, they wanted all EU workers and their children to be treated equally, regardless of nationality, language… or hair colour.

That action was rejected by Chambre de Recours on grounds of inadmissibility. The court said that it could not second-guess the wisdom of the European institutions that had agreed to the site and the ethnic division of the children. Believing that there was nothing to be done, the children were then split according to a set of obscure ‘criteria’ that resulted in the current north-south segregation.

Since then, parents assigned to Lux I have grown comfortable with the ‘acquired rights’ of their favoured status. The more affluent parents assigned to Lux II, who tend to hold higher-grade positions because they have been around for longer, bought property near Mamer, confident that its value would soar as more and more people need to move there. Because of their seniority also tends to hold representative positions in the parents’ association and staff committees. This has given rise to a bizarre situation where they pay lip service to the discrimination problem but resolutely refuse to assist those recently-arrived parents who are trying to do something about it. Instead of confronting the discrimination, those senior representatives prefer to focus solely on transport solutions, effectively ‘transporting’ the problem of Mamer onto the backs of parents with young children. The unspoken, undisclosed reality is that they are more concerned about the value of their Mamer properties, where land is currently valued at around EUR 100,000/are. If the campaigning parents are successful, they fear that this could halt the property boom and possibly even send it into a deflationary cycle, particularly as Luxembourg technically entered into recession last week.

The net result is that if you have a young family and are considering moving to Luxembourg to take up a job with the EU, this prospect is much more attractive if you speak one of the ‘blond’ languages. If you are a single parent from the southeast of Europe, forget about it. You will never be able to afford to live near the site, and a sustainable work-life balance cannot be achieved.

The situation is not hopeless, however. The main trade unions at the institutions, which are not as affected by conflicts of interest issues caused by the property, all support the campaigning parents. Recent case law at the Chambre de Recours suggests that a discrimination claim may now be admissible: equal rights provisions set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union have become enforceable, positive law, and in theory, all EU citizens must have access to an effective means to enforce those rights.

The parents hope that someday, and sooner rather than later, the Luxembourg European School will again be able to live up to its founding principles, expressed 60 years ago in the words of Marcel Decombis, the first headmaster of Luxembourg I:

‘Educated side by side, untroubled from infancy by divisive prejudices, acquainted with all that is great and good in the different cultures, it will be borne in upon them as they mature that they belong together. Without ceasing to look to their own lands with love and pride, they will become in mind Europeans, schooled and ready to complete and consolidate the work of their fathers before them to bring into being a united and thriving Europe.

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