De Lijn now also has its articulated e-buses

Flemish public transport operator De Lijn has presented its first electric articulated bus in Leuven. By July this year, 109 articulated e-buses will be in service in Flanders.

The buses are part of a framework agreement under which De Lijn can order up to 500 such vehicles from the Italian industrial vehicle manufacturing company Iveco.

Currently, 141 articulated e-buses have already been ordered from Iveco. The delivery of 109 buses is scheduled for the summer of this year. Eight e-accordion buses will be on the road in the Leuven region by April.

Thirty-one buses will be installed in the Zomergem and Bruges depots in May. Afterwards, buses will be put into service in Sint-Niklaas, Hasselt, Genk-Winterslag, and Tielt-Winge.

The remaining 32 buses will be delivered starting in 2026. The depots at which they will be deployed depend, among other things, on the further electrification of the sites and the capacity of the vehicles in the context of the trips.

Blind spot detection

The buses, which were made possible by an additional 400 million euros from the Flemish government, have an autonomy of more than 300 kilometers and can carry up to 110 passengers.

They have USB charging points for cell phones and smartphones, an electric automatic ramp for less mobile travelers, and two screens with ride information. The bus also automatically detects other road users passing by to avoid blind spot accidents as much as possible, and an automatic braking system is incorporated into the vehicle.

Fewer defective buses?

Today, De Lijn’s fleet of 2250 buses has an average age of 10.6 years. With the influx of these new buses, the public transport company hopes to move to an average age of seven years. “This will be a great improvement in service to our customers,” says Ann Schoubs, director general of De Lijn.

The number of trips canceled at De Lijn due to defective buses more than tripled between 2021 and 2024. In 2021, 8,364 rides were canceled due to defective buses; three years later, there were 28,712.