Olympic bus fare surcharge leaves 11-year-old stranded in snow | An 11-year-old schoolboy who did not have money for a bus fare surcharge introduced for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics was forced to walk 6 kilometres (3.8 miles) home in sub-zero snowy weather, his family said on Friday
https://www.reuters.com/world/olympic-bus-fare-surcharge-leaves-11-year-old-stranded-snow-2026-01-30/
Posted by Socmel_
24 Comments
Lots of blame to go around here.
Parents for not preparing the kid with money or ability to ask for help is near the top.
Regular walk to and from school for grandpa during the war. He did it barefoot though
Sounds like growing up except I had no bus to go on to begin with.
So, you have idiots in Italy as well.
That’s capitalism for you, enjoy.
I don’t blame the bus driver for following the rules set by his employer, but IMO letting 11 year old kid walk on his own because he is short on cash is quite shitty on a personal level, don’t think I would sleep well if I did that, if it was adult then fair enough adults should know better, but little kid?
That kid will one day be able to say to his kids – I walked 6 kilometres from school in sub-zero snowy weather!
And unlike my grandpa he’ll have the proof 🙂
Need to fund the competition of that ice rink somehow.
Public workers in south Europe are either the nicest people or hugest assholes, no in between.
Only reason we’re hearing about this is because gramma is a lawyer btw.
Why don’t they have a residents ticket
I thought <18 children rode free? Or at least <14 or 16. Is that not the case in the EU? It is in Greece…
When I first visited Italy I didn’t have any change on me to pay for the bus, and the machine inside wouldn’t take my card, so I was essentially getting a free ride. I asked the driver about it and he didn’t care. Another time my destination was a bit out of the way and the driver actually ended up driving a few extra blocks so I didn’t have to walk far (there was like no one else on the bus). My point is IME Italians can be quite relaxed about the “rules”, so this driver must have really been a spectacular asshole to deny a ride to an eleven year old because he didn’t have fare
wtf
And suddenly it makes much more sense why they want to have ICE troops as well…
Resident should not be paying any Olympic surcharge. That’s just so unfair
I know everyone will be joke about this but this WAS many ppls normal walk to school just a while ago.
My friend walked close to that length to school everyday.
6km is only like a little more than an hours walk.
Something ppl do for fun on the reg spontaneously.
Subzero temp doesnt tell us much at all lol
That kid did what I would do when 11, just walk home….. tell my parents…. and get confused over why they got mad at the bus company….. it was just a short walk…
It’s pretty bad to write “sub-zero” in serious journalism. Is it below freezing, or below -18C? Who knows? Usually US Americans use the term sub-zero to mean fucking cold, i.e. below 0F. Walking six kilometers in -5C? That’s just a nice walk. Not when you’re a school kid only prepared for a warm bus ride though, of course.
>The boy boarded the bus on Tuesday on his way back from school with a bundle of regular 2.5-euro tickets, but **was pushed away** by the driver after he could not come up with the cash for the higher fare.
Bus driver about to become public enemy number one.
11 year old forced to walk. OMG. When I was 11 i was walking everywhere and saving up fares
Reuters article about something that i did every single day when i was 11 years old. Times change
Poor kid…☹️ If I’d been the bus driver, I would’ve paid that kid’s fare out of my own pocket! If the bus company fired me for doing that, so be it!…
boomers will say “it builds character”