Bus strike on Wednesday

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Regional bus services will be severely disrupted on Wednesday and Thursday as drivers go on strike in support of a 3.5% pay claim and longer paid breaks.

Services across the country will be affected with the exception of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Dordrecht and parts of Friesland and Gelderland.

The decision to strike follows several days of ‘customer friendly’ industrial action during which drivers refused to collect fares.

Meanwhile, research by the Socialist Party shows that regional bus services have deteriorated since contracts were put out to tender in 2001, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday. The report into eight years of privatised regional transport is due to be published later this week.

The paper says bus services in some thinly-populated areas have been reduced drastically, bus stops have been removed from outside hospitals and homes for the elderly, and drivers’ breaks have been cut.

In Utrecht, for example, the holiday period during which fewer buses run, has been increased from six to 12 weeks, the paper says.

© DutchNews.nl

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