School buses cost the state 44 million euros
Getty Images
In response to a parliamentary request from MP Marc Goergen, Minister of Mobility and Public Works Yuriko Backes has provided a full report on school bus transport in Luxembourg for 2024. This is the first time that the state can give such a detailed overview - thanks to the new framework contracts coming into force in December 2023.
From 1 January to 15 December 2024, school buses travelled a total of 4,049,936 kilometres, costing the budget €43,989,333. The biggest contributor was the country's largest carrier, Voyages Emile Weber, which completed almost 3.95 million kilometres and received €42.6 million.
In second place is SLA S.A., which provided around 103 thousand kilometres of service for €1.34 million. In comparison, in 2022-2023 the data was less accurate due to the old contracting system, in which school route lines were not always separated from other journeys and included idle journeys to the depot.
As of December 2023, new contractual agreements came into effect requiring all carriers to provide a detailed breakdown of kilometres and costs for each school line and each school campus. As a result, the Ministry can now accurately track resource utilisation and plan for changes to the school transport network.
Some of the busiest lines are those serving Geesseknäppchen (Geesseknäppchen) and Limpertsberg (Limpertsberg), the major education clusters in Luxembourg. For example, the D11 Geesseknäppchen line travelled 53,042 kilometres in one year and the E02 Limpertsberg line 49,715 kilometres.
The Ministry emphasises that routes and line lengths are regularly adapted to current needs. This is why an accurate estimate for 2025 will not be possible until the end of the year. In addition, the price per kilometre depends on the bus category and lot, which also affects the overall costs.
