It was unusually quiet at the train stations in Austria on Monday, the train strike had brought the trains to a standstill and the platforms were practically emptied. Most Linz schools were still well attended yesterday, as an OÖN broadcast showed.
Of the approximately 700 students at the Khevenhüller grammar school, only one did not come because of the strike, said director Andreas Pree when asked by OÖN. This is because most of the students come with the Linz Linien. The strike was not particularly communicated due to the short-term nature of the school. “As you can see, it was manageable,” said Pree.
A similar picture is reported by the Akademisches Gymnasium Spittelwiese. Of the 426 students, only three or four did not show up for class due to the strike. In the Sport-NMS Kleinmünchen, a relatively large number of students were missing, but that had to do with illness and not with the strike, says director Johann Freudenthaler. Of the 250 students, most would come by city public transport, which was not part of the strike action. The Linz 6 vocational school also said that only a few students were affected by the missing train connections, and they all reported and apologized in good time.
The situation was somewhat different in HTL 1 Bau und Design Linz on Goethestrasse. About a third of the approximately 1740 students were missing. This is reflected in “the fact that we have a large catchment area and many students who travel a long way”, as Director Christian Armbruster said. These would come from the upper Mühlviertel or Lower Austria. Some of the classes were completely full, while in some others there were only two students. Lessons, like homework, took place as normal; those who missed them due to the strike can make up for them, as they can in the case of illness. Armbruster’s record: “We managed it all well.”
From the Linz lines it was said that in the morning hours “a slightly increased traffic volume similar to a busy Monday” was noticeable. There were no major obstacles, and according to an initial assessment, the ÖBB strike had hardly any effect on the number of passengers on trams and buses.
Source: Nachrichten
