Cabinet and educational institutions agree: no students during rush hour

The cabinet and educational institutions have agreed that students use public transport as little as possible and that they do not travel during rush hours. That is in one Letter to Parliament of State Secretary Van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management. If it is decided to resume part of the education at colleges and universities, that travel restriction is one of the conditions.

This refers to a specific travel time slot for students, which runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., sources report to the NOS. Although that agreement is not yet black and white at the moment.

The Cabinet is in discussion with higher education institutions, (local) transport companies and safety regions to determine whether part of education can be resumed as of 15 June. This concerns, for example, practicals and (re) exams, education that is more difficult to implement online. MBOs were previously told that they will be able to open again on 15 June in this way.

‘By car, by bike or on foot’

HBOs and universities are expected to receive a definite answer next week. “We actually hoped for that last week,” said Maurice Limmen, chairman of the Association of Colleges. “But then we were told that the transport flows had to be further investigated. Now the starting point is that students will certainly not travel during rush hour. But at the local level, discussions with transport companies and universities of applied sciences are still going on how exactly we organize it.”

Some educational institutions are located a little further out of a city or at a very busy point in the city center, Limmen indicates. “These bottlenecks are discussed by individual universities of applied sciences with the local carriers. In addition, the universities of applied sciences encourage students to travel in other ways where possible. By car, bicycle or on foot.”

The decision whether colleges and universities are allowed to open again to a limited extent depends on more than just the transport flows. The educational institutions have also submitted protocols in which they describe how they think they can open up responsibly again. According to a spokesman for the Association of Universities, there is an “advanced agreement framework” with the responsible ministries.

In addition to educational institutions, the cabinet is in discussion with other parties, such as employers and public visitors, to spread travelers as much as possible over public transport. As of June 1, the timetables of transport companies will be scaled up and a number of corona measures will be relaxed. As a result, more travelers will most likely take the train, bus, tram and metro.

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