Young people take action in a decorated train compartment: “Public transport is much too expensive for us” (Antwerp)

Fifteen students traveled with their study books by train from Antwerp to Charleroi. They used balloons and streamers to draw attention to expensive tickets.

“We want to make it clear with this campaign that it is far too expensive for young people to travel to school or to their hobbies by public transport,” said Lore Ost (15), one of the students who attended the event on Wednesday afternoon, May 1. train hijacked.

Students traveled with their study books from Antwerp via Brussels to Charleroi and back. There were fifteen in total, nine Flemish and six Walloon young people. The five of them left from Antwerp-Central and along the way students joined us gradually.

The organizers are active within the student umbrella organization and therefore know all too well what is going on among young people. “Within that umbrella organization we work in project groups to address the different priorities of students. We surveyed no fewer than 20,000 secondary school students to identify these priorities.” Ultimately, the students organized this action separately from the student umbrella organization.

“The conductor only checked our tickets and other passengers seemed to like our original study club in the train compartment.” They made the long drive a fun time with balloons, streamers and snacks.

“Surprisingly, we were not delayed. It was a very long time on the train, but we had plenty of schoolwork to work on and the company was of course great!” According to Lore and the other students, it should not be limited to a one-off action. “I think this is a good example of the types of actions we can take to draw attention from politicians. I would definitely do it again!” (mdcl)