With regional transport in North Holland under pressure, the neighborhood bus is once again proving extra important. In Noordkop and West-Friesland, local buses have been used for years to make up for the shortages on regular lines. “But we are not a total solution for the shortages in public transport,” says volunteer Koos Slootweg.
Yet for many travelers they are a good alternative to the usual buses. Regional transport has been struggling for some time with shortages in terms of personnel and money.
It is feared that the timetable will have to be scaled back even further if this does not change. “I hope the neighborhood bus will continue to run like this for a long time to come, because I go to school with it every day,” says one of the passengers.
Different every time
The neighborhood bus arrives at the stops where the regular lines no longer run, or they stop briefly when someone raises a hand. “That’s the nice thing about this job, you stop somewhere different every time,” says the bus driver.
The text continues below the video.
The importance of the neighborhood bus – NH Nieuws
Only volunteers
Koos is not the only one who voluntarily drives the bus. The entire line runs on volunteers: six every day, for two lines. “We notice that we have less and less of that since corona,” says Koos.
“We were out for a while and then we lost a lot of people to other hobbies or volunteer work.” Also for the neighborhood bus, they only continue to exist if there are enough staff. And those are volunteers here.
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