The municipality answered the questions posed by Lisboa Para Pessoas about the school bus pilot, which, after all, will take place in only one school in Lumiar, one in Olivais and another one in Beato.
After the news from Lisboa Para Pessoas - which reported that there was no information on the Bicycle Trains despite the start of the new school year -, the Lisbon City Council (CML) has made available the usual form registrationThis will allow interested families to register their children for this innovative municipal school mobility program.
Registration opened on September 22 and is ongoing for the 15 schools that participated in the Bicycle Trains in the 2020/21 school year, with the addition of a new establishment - the Santa Cecília Music Academy, in the parish of Santa Clara. There is still no date for the start of the Bicycle Trains, but it is expected that they will start running again in the next few months; before that, at least two formalities will be needed: firstly, that the proposal defining the program's budget and the transfer of resources to the Bicicultura cooperative, which operates the Trains on the ground, is approved at a town hall meeting (as is expected); secondly, that personal accident and liability insurance is taken out for each child taking part in the trains.
This school year will also see the start of the Pedaling Schoolsat least in the parish of São Domingos de Benfica. In response to Lisboa Para Pessoas, the municipality said it was "in dialog with the Parish Council of São Domingos de Benfica to proceed with the implementation model". Winner of the Participatory Budget in 2021, the project Pedaling Schools is a project that, in essence, is the same as the Bicycle Trains - in other words, the trains will arrive in São Domingos de Benfica, but with a different name.
For Pedaling Schoolsthree schools in the parish of São Domingos de Benfica are covered, a EB 2,3 Professor Delfim Santos, o Externato Fernão Mendes Pinto and the Benfica Teaching Cooperative. The project also involved the EB 1,2,3 Pedro de Santarém in the neighboring parish of Benfica, but so far there has been no agreement with Ricardo Marques, President of the Benfica Parish Council, to carry out this project, which was the wish of the population.
School buses: pilot starts in October in "at least" one school
The school bus pilot project that is due to start this school year will, after all, be implemented in just one school in Lumiar, not two, as previously announced at a town hall meeting and reported by the PCP councillors. The proposal that the Communists saw approved in February decided on a "study of a service to be created by Carris dedicated to school transport" and the implementation of a pilot project in September.
Slightly behind schedule, the pilot will cover the following schools, it is expected that "start at least one in October" their:
- EB 2,3 de Telheiras (Lumiar);
- EB 1 Paulino Montez (Olivais);
- EB 2,3 Luís António Verney (Beato).
EB 2,3 Prof. Lindley Cintra, in Lumiar, which had been announced as part of the pilot instead of the school in Beato, will be left out. The selection of these schools was the result of a "analysis of the public school network in the city of Lisbon from the 1st cycle to secondary education, taking into account its location, the existing cycles of education and the number of students"The municipality explained to Lisboa Para Pessoas. "Exclusively vocational and evening schools have been excluded." The analysis also looked at the survey data Hands Up! 2021, from the Navegante School card - that all students up to the age of 12 receive in Lisbon - and the Carris network that serves each of the schools and addresses.
"From the analysis of the previous data, it was possible to identify the schools with the greatest potential for changing mobility patterns, taking into account the current ones (schools with the greatest use of individual transport on the way to school), the origin-destination matrices and the available Carris network."informs the Lisbon City Council. "This study was carried out by an external consultant hired by Carris, who defined, in collaboration with Carris and the Lisbon City Council, a set of criteria for selecting schools to implement a pilot project" school transport.
In addition to the criteria already mentioned, we tried to cover different parishes, "in order to develop the pilot in different territories", and we looked at the "how easy it is to liaise with school coordination" e "other partners, namely parish councils and parents' associations"as well as for the "level of participation and commitment of schools in mobility projects developed by CML".
School buses must provide service "initially only on arrival at school" and appealing, "preferably"Carris' services that are already in circulation and are publicly accessible, such as the Carreiras de Bairro. The idea is to have "monitors who accompany the students on the bus and to the school gate, throughout the school year, in the 1st Cycle and during the 1st period in the 2nd Cycle. The rest of the students will travel independently. The service will be accessed at existing Carris stops".
The primary target audience is "students who live in the school's catchment area and more than 500 meters away". Each of the schools will have a specific pilot, adapted to the "reality of the educational community", but the idea is for the school transport service to operate on existing Carris routes, "adjusting the service whenever necessary, i.e. timetables, routes and stops close to the school".
"In September, meetings were held with school coordinators to present the project and adjust the pilot implementation model"The municipality explains that a survey is now being carried out among parents in the schools involved in order to "getting to know the reality of the educational community in more detail, specifically the origin-destination matrices, as well as perceptions regarding the use of public transport". Only then, in October, "with the results of the survey"will be "designed" the school transport solution for each school, and the pilot is expected to start this month in at least one of the parishes. "The investment required has not yet been determined, as the final design of each project will depend on the information to be obtained as part of the above-mentioned surveys."
With the pilot, Carris and CML hope to "reduce car congestion at the school gates" e "promoting children's autonomy and confidence in their journeys to school, particularly when using public transport". At the same time "to publicize the Carris network that serves the selected schools" e "study the school population covered" to adjust existing routes and timetables "should the need arise". Another important objective is the identification of "difficulties on the routes between the Carris stops and the school"The aim is to "improving pedestrian access" and identify the "safer routes".
Tender launched for the Alfacinhas
The Lisbon City Council also clarified that the public tender related to the Alfacinhas school transport service "it was deserted, so it was not possible to secure them immediately"but clarified that, "as a rule, the service starts 1 to 2 weeks into the school year once the number of applicants has been received". "The legal process for the new public tender has already begun, with a base price that is expected to be accepted by the market" and has been updated by 8% compared to previous years, the municipality said.
O Alfacinhas is a free school transport service for primary school pupils who live more than 12 minutes' walk from the school where they are enrolled.The service is provided within the catchment area of the respective school grouping. The stops are defined according to each child's residence and the service is available in the morning to school and in the evening to home. In the last school year (2021/22), it covered five school groups, benefiting 604 pupils.
Two weeks ago, the socialist councillor in the CML had denounced delays in launching and contracting the Alfacinhas. The operation of the Alfacinhas was assigned to a private company, through a public tender. Since 2016, it was Barraqueiro performing the service for periods of three school years. The last contract, in the amount of 2.6 million euros, dated 2019 and ended last school year. The contract signed in 2016 had been cheaper, 2.2 million. The PS had accused Carlos Moedas' executive of "incompetence" because "ignored the reality of economic agents, maintaining the prices of the tender when costs were skyrocketing. No company was interested, of course, and hundreds of children are without transportation".
