More passengers, more new drivers and e-buses for De Lijn

Last year, the Flemish public transport company De Lijn carried 373 million passengers, up 4.5%. According to Director General Ann Schoubs, this increase in passengers immediately proves that the new transportation plan introduced in 2024 has worked.

In 2025, 200 new e-buses will be delivered to De Lijn, and a search for 600 new drivers will also be launched. In this way, De Lijn hopes to address one of its pain points: ride cancellations.

No standstill

The major network adjustment implemented in 2024, “the biggest in our history,” caused uproar and a laundry list of complaints in the first few months of that year. Still, afterward, everything fell neatly into place, Schoubs made clear yesterday at a press conference when presenting the annual figures.

“The network became more demand-oriented and more efficient, with the deployment of more public transportation where the demand was greatest,” Schoubs said. “However, that does not mean we stop making changes. After all, our network is not standing still.”

Overall satisfaction score of 7.5 out of 10

In 2024, the number of season tickets sold increased by 4%, and the number of tickets and multi-ride passes sold by 7%. Flex transport, a demand-dependent transport that started in January 2024, replacing the old Bel bus system with a broader offer, accounts for 0.3% of De Lijn’s total passenger numbers.

Last year, De Lijn transported 1.15 million passengers via flex transport, or 914,000 reservations, representing more than a quarter more customers than with the old on-call bus. According to Schoubs, the transportation company is going to tweak that system. “Sometimes we can better refer travelers to regular transportation,” she said.

De Lijn travelers gave the transportation company an overall satisfaction score of 7.5 out of 10. “The satisfaction measurement results indicate that our travelers are satisfied,” Schoubs stressed.

More checks

Last year, De Lijn also checked 2.2 million travelers, almost 40% more than in 2023. The number of checks sharply increased thanks to the hiring of additional checkpoint staff and the introduction of counting cameras, which is also why the number of travelers in 2024 is much lower than, for example, in the 2010s, when a different counting method yielded more than 500 million travelers each time.

Indeed, there may be more fare dodgers on vehicles where a larger discrepancy is observed between the number of ticket registrations and those of the counting cameras. Such info helps De Lijn to do more targeted checks.

The percentage of undeclared travel in 2024 was 3.8% compared to 4.5% in 2023, with the province of Antwerp, the Brussels periphery, Ghent, and the coast as the outliers.

De Lijn, however, has seen the number of undeclared passengers fall for several years. In 2021, after a period when checks were rare, it was still 7.8%. This year, the transportation company will hire 50 more inspectors and conduct even more checks.

Extra drivers

At the same time, De Lijn is also still looking for 600 new drivers. “Over the past few years, we have looked for about 700 to 800 each time and usually found them. And so, this year, too, we will recruit more people,” Schoubs said.

However, on Tuesday, the joint union front at De Lijn submitted a strike notice for March 12th. According to the unions, this is in response to the reduction in the number of services in several regions, although they also point out that the profession of drivers has been a bottleneck for years, both at De Lijn and at subcontractors.

They also refer to the impact of service schedules. With the lack of early shifts, maintaining a fixed service schedule that evolves from late to early will become increasingly complex. The unions say that drivers will have to drive split shifts more often, ensure evening shifts, and work on Saturdays. These irregular working hours greatly impact drivers’ social and family lives.

Schoubs pointed out that talks with the unions are ongoing and constructive. She also raised the idea that young drivers who are just starting out at De Lijn and often have young families might get fewer split shifts. Increased use of flexi-drivers, an idea Flemish Mobility Minister Annick De Ridder (N-VA) wants to work on, could also help solve the problem.

New e-buses and more flex transport?

New drivers can already look forward to driving brand-new e-buses because 200 will be delivered this year, which is necessary for renewing and rejuvenating the fleet. And even in 2025, substantially more new buses and streetcars can be ordered thanks to the Flemish government’s additional investment of 400 million euros.

In her 2025 outlook, Schoubs also stated that by employing counting cameras and the smart AI algorithm, De Lijn has a much richer set of data on frequently used or less used stops and lines, busy times, and less busy times compared to the past.

De Lijn wants to use this more actively to continue building an even more efficient and effective network. This means that on certain lines that are not busy and that make up 20% of the network, there may be more flex transport instead of fixed bus lines.