After a year of dragging its feet on greening its fleet, the Flemish public transport company now seems to be reaching full cruising speed in terms of curbing its CO2. On top of the 230 new buses currently being delivered, De Lijn is ordering another 290 electric buses.
This investment of 185 million euros aligns with De Lijn’s ambition to offer completely emission-free public transport by 2035. And to silence the critics, 50 buses are Belgian-made.
Most buses are still from BYD
The new Flemish government made 400 million euros available to De Lijn to invest in rolling stock. The company has now tapped that budget to shop around with various bus builders.
Some 50 buses of the order of 290 e-buses will be made at VDL in Roeselare. These are articulated e-buses with a length of 18 meters. De Lijn appears to have learned its lesson, as evidenced by its previous order of 92 buses from BYD. This order was met with criticism, as De Lijn was accused of not taking advantage of the offer within the Flemish and European bus industry, a reference that followed the bankruptcy of the Flemish bus manufacturer Van Hool.
Another 100 buses of the same type have also been ordered from Iveco to be built in France. Finally, De Lijn ordered 140 standard e-buses, with a length of 12 meters, from BYD. These vehicles will be built in Hungary.
More buses are on the way
The first buses are expected to be delivered by the end of next year. Flemish Minister of Mobility Annick De Ridder (N-VA) expects De Lijn to place an additional order later this year. The average age of De Lijn’s buses increased further last year, to 10.6 years. The influx of new e-buses should herald the turnaround.
“We are resolutely continuing to implement our greening program,” says Ann Schoubs, Director General of De Lijn. “The rejuvenation of our bus fleet that we can achieve with this will also ensure a more reliable offer for the traveler,” a reference to the fact that De Lijn is breaking records in terms of cancelled rides. “These e-buses will also be equipped with all modern comforts, with which we want to get more passengers on our buses and thus help reduce congestion. At the same time, we are also giving priority to the electrification of our depots, so that the newly purchased e-buses can be charged.”
According to Minister De Ridder, 500 to 600 buses will be ordered this year. If the e-buses ordered in the past are included, De Lijn would have 1,000 new vehicles by the end of the legislature, or about half the fleet.
The political party CD&V also fears that these e-buses will primarily be deployed in the larger cities. After all, today only nine of De Lijn’s 54 depots, or 17%, still have charging infrastructure.
And for the time being, there is no electric charging infrastructure in sight for De Lijn buses in the Westhoek, the Midwest region (east of West Flanders), the Flemish Ardennes, the Dender region, the Kempen, and large parts of Limburg and the Vlaamse Rand. Ostend is also out of the picture.
New action plan against fare-dodging
De Lijn also launched a new action plan against fare-dodging. This involves using data and artificial intelligence to detect high-risk lines and moments. But De Lijn is also hiring extra inspectors. It wants to deploy them more, with specific targets per region.
Bus attendants will also be able to conduct checks. Moreover, checks will no longer be announced in advance. De Lijn will continue its checks in cooperation with local police districts and also investigate the possibility of support from external security firms, such as G4S.
Front boarding on the bus will also become mandatory again. Following the fare increase, fines will also rise by 18%. Fines will subsequently be evaluated along with the health index. Finally, the delicate process will be reformed for more efficient collection, for example, through the use of automatic collection.
Readjustment of offerings
Also, on July 1st, De Lijn will readjust its offerings. In doing so, the offer must be further tailored to available capacity, changing train hours, and major detours. The adjustments also come to “eliminate supply shortages in the various transport regions.”
The shortfalls in De Lijn’s offerings are partly due to underutilization and a shortage of drivers and buses. The adjustments consider the principles of basic accessibility, says De Lijn. “Indeed, initial analysis shows that there are still quite a few bus lines that have very low utilization and others where there is clear potential available to invest further in.”
Retro fun
Besides, this year marks exactly 100 years since the first “scheduled” bus line ran in Belgium, a result of legislation that made public transport by bus possible. The first scheduled buses, between Place Jourdan in Etterbeek and the center of Overijse, ran in 1925. The line, except for some adjustments to the travel route, remains in place today.
To celebrate, the Brussels Tram Museum is hosting a two-day ‘bus festival’ in the capital this weekend. The program includes an exhibition, retro bus rides, and an old-timer rally.
