Aalborg transport problems leave special-needs families struggling

Families in Aalborg have faced months of problems with transport for children with special needs, including late pickups and incorrect addresses, DR reports.

Ten-year-old Sofus Andersen’s taxi home arrives at 4.45pm, 45 minutes after his after-school programme closes. If he stays for the programme, he must wait alone for the taxi.

Sofus, who was born seven weeks premature, attends a special school 15 kilometres from his family’s home. His mother, Karina Andersen, has had to collect him herself for months, often straight after the school day.

“It should just work for him to take the taxi home,” she told DR. “He often doesn’t go to the after-school programme because I collect him as soon as school ends. I work nights, and it won’t work if I have to pick him up later.”

The problems began after Aalborg Municipality introduced a new system intended to make transport to and from special education services more efficient. Families have reported pickup times that cannot be changed and incorrect addresses.

In Tylstrup, Kristoffer Smedstrup has changed his working hours so he can drive his 15-year-old son, Alexander, to school. Alexander lives with his father every other week, but that address is not registered in the system. The taxi still arrives, but at Alexander’s mother’s home.

“It’s very rigid that I have to drive when there’s an empty taxi 1.5 kilometres away at his mother’s, paid for by the municipality,” Smedstrup said. He and Alexander’s stepmother have adjusted their work schedules to take him to school.

Alexander has autism and says he could take the bus, but that would take too much energy. He would have to think about finding a seat, whether anyone might speak to him and where to get off.

His father has tried to get the address corrected, but no solution is in sight. “At first there was a lot of frustration and anger, but now it’s just resignation towards the system,” Smedstrup said.

Aalborg Municipality acknowledges that the system is still causing problems. Jesper Carlsen, the municipality’s director of Climate, Culture and Health, said it had not delivered the functionality expected.

Carlsen said the municipality was frustrated by delays in making changes and expected the system to be able to handle them. The municipality will draw up an action plan with the system’s owner, Nordjyllands Trafikselskab, a regional transport company.