Frozen snow: Suspension of School Buses is Maintained on Wednesday in Pays de la Loire

The latest weather forecasts show new snowfall mixed with rain in the evening, and temperatures which can drop to -3 °C. The decision has therefore just been taken to maintain the suspension of school transport for the day of Wednesday 7th January in Pays de la Loire. All families will be alerted by SMS.

There will be no school bus on Wednesday 7th January for the 140,000 schoolchildren in the Pays de la Loire region. The decision was taken following a meeting at the regional prefecture with local elected officials and the services concerned.

The French weather forecast for this evening predicts snowfall mixed with rain and temperatures that could drop below zero degrees. Three departments will be on orange level ice snow alert: Vendée, Maine-et-Loire and Sarthe. The departments of Loire-Atlantique and Mayenne are placed on yellow alert “be attentive”). It is therefore safety that takes precedence.

“All families will be notified by text, email and SMS” it was specified by the Pays de la Loire Region. Aléop school transport will be canceled tomorrow, Wednesday January 7, in all five departments of the Pays de la Loire region. The weather situation will, in fact, remain mixed.

All companies that participate in school transport in the Aléop network are concerned, such as the Augereau coaches (Maine-et-Loire and Loire-Atlantique). The group’s general manager, Grégory Cordier, explains that the bad weather led to the immobilization this Tuesday morning of 70 coaches for our company. As soon as we received the prefectural decree, we notified all drivers for Tuesday. Some were also unable to come to work because of the state of the roads. For the company, this fixed asset will be partially compensated by the principals, such as Aléop, Mauges Communauté or Cholet Bus.

Two bus accidents

Throughout the regional school transport network, bad weather did not cause any major incidents. But in Mayenne, two school transport coach accidents occurred on Monday January 5, 2026 due to snow and ice in Mayenne. One of the buses with around fifty children on board lay down in a ditch near Cossé-le-Vivien (Mayenne) at 5:30 p.m. The other, with around thirty students, slipped due to snow, around Montjean. Some injured people were treated by emergency services mobilized on site.

School buses transporting high school students this Monday 5th January, remained stuck in the Saint-Nazaire sector (Loire-Atlantique). In total, 120 students (4 in Donges, 40 in Montoir-de-Bretagne, 68 in Saint-Nazaire and 8 in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins) were supported by state services, the Region of Pays de la Loire and the various towns concerned. However, many parents came to pick up their children.