October 06, 2025
The socialist transport workers union BTB-ABVV has once again published a black book on Belgian motorway parking areas. “Unsafe, inadequate, and uncomfortable” is the conclusion of the 11th review, which examined more than 50 parking areas in Belgium and abroad. “It’s high time that policymakers, employers, and clients take responsibility,” says Tom Peeters, deputy federal […]
October 03, 2025
Much has been written about the possible introduction of compulsory bicycle helmets, but everyone agrees that wearing one protects you better against head injuries in the event of a fall. London-based start-up RLS has recently developed an innovative technology for bicycle helmets that significantly reduces the risk of concussions and traumatic brain injuries in the […]
October 03, 2025
A new study funded by the European Commission and conducted by Ghent University on the working conditions of pilots and cabin crew at airlines in the EU reveals some alarming trends that are not necessarily encouraging for airline passengers. High workloads, fatigue, stress, and feelings of dehumanization are commonplace, and the pressure for efficiency and […]
October 02, 2025
The approximately 2,600 employees of the Eurostar high-speed train service have been sporting new uniforms since yesterday. This is the first comprehensive uniform revamp for the company in over a decade. The 54-piece collection reflects the European spirit and is inspired by the various European cities served by Eurostar. In addition to cultural references to […]
October 02, 2025
Almost half of incidents involving pedestrians occur when they are on the sidewalk, a bike path, or in a pedestrian zone, and not when they are hit while crossing the street, as is commonly expected. This is according to a new study by the Traffic Safety Institute Vias. Also noteworthy: 1 in 5 accidents or […]
October 01, 2025
Starting today, Belgian postal company Bpost will deliver its parcels and mail in the 19 municipalities of Brussels completely emission-free. According to Bpost, this makes the capital the first European metropolis where postal workers make their daily rounds completely emission-free. 565 electric delivery vans and 57 electric bicycles with trailers make 728 rounds every day, […]
October 01, 2025
At the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB, only 6,5% of tickets are still purchased at ticket offices, compared to 50% a decade ago. This is logical, considering that there are only 91 stations with ticket offices left, which are often only open in the mornings. The Mobility Committee is now asking NMBS/SNCB to launch a […]
September 30, 2025
Four in a row, because after the Doel 3, Tihange 2, and Doel 1 nuclear reactors were permanently shut down earlier, on Monday night, the plug will also be pulled on Tihange 1. The nuclear reactor has been in service for 50 years, although the Belgian government hopes that this is not the end of […]
September 30, 2025
France is launching a new round of its social leasing plan for the purchase of electric cars, aimed at lower-income households. The system was also launched last year, but was suspended after about six weeks because the budget was quickly exhausted as the number of validated orders was much higher than expected. For this year, […]
September 29, 2025
Lufthansa plans to reduce its administrative workforce by approximately 4,000 by 2030. Most of the jobs will be lost in Germany. The jobs will become redundant because processes “will be digitized, automated, and consolidated,” says the German airline group. Brussels Airlines expects a “limited impact”. At the same time, the group also announced “the largest […]
September 29, 2025
Two Brussels mothers have launched WeCar.mobi, a free carpooling platform designed to make life a lot easier for parents. The platform enables you to coordinate carpooling for private groups, such as after-school activities, birthday parties, or sports matches, while also reducing your individual carbon footprint by sharing rides. Arranging transportation for your children to school and […]
September 26, 2025
Thanks to an agreement with the Flemish Brabant municipality of Linkebeek, the legal issues surrounding the expansion plans for the Brussels-Nivelles line as part of the Regional Express Network (GEN) have been resolved. Federal Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engages) and Benoît Gilson, CEO of Infrabel, signed an agreement yesterday with the first alderman […]
September 26, 2025
Good news for owners of trendy Cowboy bicycles: the brand and the bicycles will continue to exist. French bicycle group Rebirth is set to acquire 80% of the Brussels-based bicycle company and will invest 15 million euros to get the manufacturer of connected e-bikes back on track. Cowboy, which lost 20 million euros last year […]
September 25, 2025
The Dieselgate ‘nightmare’ continues to haunt Volkswagen. Disadvantaged Volkswagen customers in France can still claim compensation five years after being informed that cheating software had been installed in their cars. This was ruled by the Court of Cassation, France’s highest Court. Previously, the limitation period for civil lawsuits related to the Dieselgate scandal was five […]
September 25, 2025
There is no longer any legal obstacle preventing the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB from awarding the contract for the definitive allocation of hundreds of new AM30 trainsets to the Spanish company CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles). After the Council of State rejected Siemens Mobility’s appeal against the order by German train manufacturer last […]
September 24, 2025
EDF, Europe’s largest electricity company, is negotiating with Engie and the Belgian government about a potential takeover of the Doel 4 and Tihange 3 nuclear reactors, aimed at keeping both plants operational longer, specifically until 2045. This is according to La Lettre, a French online newspaper that mainly reports on politics, business, and the media […]
September 24, 2025
Getting a 4/10 on your report card and still receiving a financial bonus of more than 400,000 euros? That is the outcome of the annual performance report by the Federal Public Service Mobility for the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB. In 2024, NMBS/SNCB achieved its targets for five of the 12 performance indicators, while scoring […]
September 23, 2025
The Flemish government wants to collect an additional 50 million euros annually from speed trap fines. This is one of the mobility consequences of the September Declaration, the moment when the Flemish government proposes the 2026 budget. In addition, the Diependaele government is increasing the CO2 tax for trucks. The kilometer charge is expected to […]
September 23, 2025
For the first time in the history of Deutsche Bahn, a woman will become chair of the board of the German national railway company. That honor goes to Evelyn Palla, who previously headed Deutsche Bahn’s regional train division. In the German business world, it remains relatively rare for women to hold the top position in […]
September 22, 2025
Several European airports, including Brussels Airport, Heathrow, Berlin Brandenburg Airport, Dublin, and Cork, have been disrupted on Friday and in the weekend by a cyberattack on external service provider Collins Aerospace. Even though it’s been a few days, the fallout is still being felt. The attack affected the American aviation company, which supplies software for […]
September 22, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB is in a stronger legal position regarding the tendering of new trains. As expected, the Council of State has rejected the appeal by German company Siemens Mobility against NMNS/SNCB’s plans to award an order for hundreds of new trainsets to the Spanish company CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles). […]
September 22, 2025
If outgoing Brussels Minister of Mobility Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) has her way, the capital will become car-free not once but four times a year. Van den Brandt wants to discuss this with the mayors of the 19 municipalities. A poll also shows that most Brussels residents want several car-free days per year. In addition […]
September 19, 2025
The new tram in Liège has been in service since the end of April and is proving to be a resounding success. Although no reliable public sources are immediately available, the newspaper Le Soir reports 100,000 users per week, which would amount to more than 2 million passengers to date. The only downside is that […]
September 18, 2025
French energy giant Engie may be willing to extend the lifespan of the Doel 4 and Tihange 3 nuclear reactors by 20 years instead of the planned 10 years. According to the unions, CEO Cédric Osterrieth said this at a works council meeting this week. Furthermore, according to the newspaper Le Soir, Energy Minister Mathieu […]
September 18, 2025
Two Xpeng AeroHT eVTOLs collided at an air show in Changchun, China, according to various Chinese and American media reports. At least one passenger was taken to the hospital with injuries, but these are not believed to be life-threatening. The cause of the accident is still unclear. There have been relatively few incidents involving eVTOLs, […]
September 17, 2025
The three-country train between Maastricht in the Netherlands, the German city of Aachen, and Liège in Belgium was canceled too often last year and ran late 34% of the time. According to agreements between the Dutch province of Limburg and transport company Arriva, this should be no more than 5%. The main reasons for cancellations […]
September 17, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB reportedly orders trains to skip stops an average of five times a day to make up for delays. In six months, more than 900 stops were skipped. It was already known that NMBS/SNCB was applying this practice. For example, the ombudsperson service already mentioned it in its annual report […]
September 16, 2025
During July and August, around 5 million passengers traveled through Brussels Airport. That is an increase of 3%. In August, the airport welcomed 2,5 million passengers, the same as in July. The number of arriving passengers was particularly high, 200,000 more than departing passengers. Due to the large number of local passengers, the share of […]
September 16, 2025
The Walloon public transport company TEC has inaugurated the B2 line in Sart-Tilman, Liège, the first fully electric bus line in Wallonia. The bus line has its own infrastructure and priority at traffic lights. From now on, 14 articulated e-buses will run on this strategic axis between Guillemins station and Sart-Tilman/Botanique, which is used by […]
September 15, 2025
On September 21, Car-Free Sunday will be organized in various cities and municipalities in Belgium. To mark the occasion, NMBS/SNCB is offering a second-class return ticket for 8 euros. It is noteworthy that in Wallonia, only a few municipalities, such as Moranwelz, Le Bizet, and Ans, are participating in the initiative, while the entire Brussels-Capital […]
September 15, 2025
Only one in eight Belgian companies meets the regional targets for sustainable commuting by its staff. This is according to the first mobility index published by Securex, an HR service provider, and Vias, the knowledge institute for mobility and road safety. In general, Brussels companies score the best, Flemish companies average, and Walloon companies lag. Securex […]
September 12, 2025
What was feared has come true: the Constitutional Court has suspended the ordinance postponing the tightening of the Brussels low-emission zone (LEZ). Among other things, the Court ruled that the ordinance could cause irreparable harm to one of the petitioners, a child with chronic asthma and allergies. The Court also referred to the ‘standstill’ principle […]
September 11, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB is currently carrying out extra checks on more than 400 trains on various lines and platforms to verify the validity of tickets. The campaign is part of a broader crackdown on fraud: this year, 40% more passengers will be checked compared to last year. Checks on the 900,000 passengers […]
September 11, 2025
From January, every Belgian employer must also offer the mobility budget to every employee with (or entitled to) a company car. However, only one in five small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, is aware of this new obligation. This is according to a recent survey of more than 500 SMEs conducted by SD Worx. The […]
September 11, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SCNB has always been a lukewarm supporter of access gates in train stations. This idea has been raised several times in the past and was also mentioned in the coalition agreement, but has now been shelved by NMBS/SNCB after a “negative business case.” According to Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke […]
September 10, 2025
From January 1, there is a threat of stricter rules for low-emission zones (LEZ) in Antwerp and Ghent, even though the new coalition agreement stipulated that there would be no such tightening of the rules. Both the governing parties, N-VA and Vooruit, are urging Flemish Minister for the Environment Jo Brouns (CD&V) to provide clarity […]
September 08, 2025
The operation of EWATe, a government instrument set up to accelerate the energy transition in Wallonia, has been suspended. This is reported by the business newspaper L’Echo. As a result, several new projects, including battery parks and solar installations, representing investments of €600 to €800 million, have been put on hold for the time being. […]
September 05, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB will now make its camera footage directly available to police officers. This will enable the police to monitor what is happening in stations and station areas in real-time. Until now, police services could only request the images after the fact, for example, after an incident had occurred. Almost 130 […]
September 05, 2025
€280,000. That is the amount of compensation that the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB had to pay last year to passengers whose trains did not arrive or were late. This was reported by the newspaper De Morgen. It is mainly delays of more than an hour that are costing the railway company money. A response from […]
September 04, 2025
The policy pursued by the previous Walloon government for the rollout of a charging station infrastructure for EVs is inadequate. This is the conclusion of a damning report by the Belgian Court of Auditors. The plan also focuses too much on the number of charging points and, according to the Court of Auditors, lacks a […]
August 27, 2025
Germany and Canada will collaborate more closely in the field of rare earth metals, such as cobalt, lithium, tungsten, and nickel. These raw materials are essential components for EV batteries, electric motors, and other applications. Both countries will finance projects in Canada for the extraction of these materials in the future. This was agreed by […]
August 27, 2025
There is another fly in the ointment in the NMBS/SNCB saga concerning the designation of the Spanish company CAF as the preferred bidder for a multi-billion euro order for up to 600 new trainsets. Following the French company Alstom’s continued exercise of its legal rights before the Council of State in Belgium regarding the tender, […]
August 26, 2025
Last year, 482 children and young people were injured in traffic accidents in Brussels. The figures come from Brussels Mobility, which publishes them due to the first day of school in French-speaking education in the capital. The service reminds all road users, including drivers, cyclists, e-scooter users, and pedestrians, to be extra cautious and to […]
August 25, 2025
Traffic accidents remain one of the leading causes of death and injury among young people. One reason for this is that young people, especially boys, often exhibit risky behavior in traffic. A study by the Vias Institute, for example, shows that four out of ten adolescents do not always wear a seatbelt when traveling in […]
August 22, 2025
The Flemish public transport company De Lijn is testing a new, intelligent driving assistance system in Antwerp to warn tram drivers of potential hazards, such as pedestrians, cyclists, or obstacles on the tracks. The system uses cameras, sensors, and artificial intelligence (AI), and was developed by the Ghent-based technology company OTIV. The tests are part […]
August 22, 2025
From January 2026, Volvo Car Gent will discontinue its own bus transport service for its approximately 6,500 employees. The decision to terminate the private bus service comes as no surprise: only 98 employees still use the service. The bus service had, therefore, become too expensive to continue. Together with the personnel department, a solution is […]
August 21, 2025
The most polluting way to travel is almost always the cheapest. Or: Trains are often slightly cheaper than planes. It’s a matter of interpretation or wording, but these are two headlines about a new Greenpeace study on the fact that flying in Europe is cheaper than talking the train in more than half of all […]
August 20, 2025
The Antwerp-based maritime group CMB.TECH is acquiring Golden Ocean, the Norwegian dry bulk shipping company. The acquisition, not a traditional cash acquisition but a merger through a share exchange, was approved yesterday by Golden Ocean’s shareholders during an extraordinary general meeting in Hamilton, Bermuda’s capital. The merger will make CMB.TECH one of the largest listed […]
August 19, 2025
The Brussels Ring Road is only 75 km long, but it can be seen as a symbol of Belgium’s communal complexity. The Works Association (De Werkvennootschap), an entity within the Flemish government established to tackle complex projects, has just reached an agreement with the environmental organization Dryade on the redevelopment of the Brussels Ring Road, […]
August 18, 2025
No one bats an eyelid anymore at a billionaire with a private jet or a collection of exclusive luxury cars. But having your own private train carriage or railway line is, of course, a different matter altogether. In the United States in particular, investing in historic train cars has been the latest status symbol for […]
August 14, 2025
Cowboy, the Brussels-based manufacturer of trendy, usually dark black electric bikes, has always been surrounded by a certain amount of financial haze. The recall of the C4 ST (Edition MR) model in early May due to the risk of frame breakage has once again thrown the company into turmoil. There is even talk of a new […]
August 14, 2025
The Brussels public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into an incident at Brussels North train station in which Securail agents allegedly assaulted a woman of African origin. According to the public prosecutor’s office, blows were inflicted by both a Securail officer and another person involved in the incident. Both are now under investigation, but […]
August 13, 2025
The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully launched an Ariane 6 rocket from French Guiana, placing the four-ton MetOp-SG-A1 satellite into orbit around the Earth. The satellite will monitor weather, climate, and air pollution, marking an important step toward greater European independence in space and meteorology. More accurate measurements The MetOp-SG-A1 is equipped with six […]
August 12, 2025
Brussels is getting a new cycle highway: the C223 will connect Bockstael (Laeken) with the former Kuregem station (Anderlecht) along railway line 28, which runs between Schaerbeek station and Brussels-South. The 6.5 km long cycle and walking path, which is being constructed just now by the Brussels public works contractor Beliris, crosses five municipalities: the […]
August 11, 2025
Energy company Engie has successfully fired up its new combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in Flémalle, near Liège, for the first time, completing extensive tests of all essential systems. The first ignition marks the transition from the construction phase to the operational testing phase. By November, the plant is expected to add approximately 875 […]
August 08, 2025
The trains of the Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB ran more punctually in July compared to a year ago. In July, 93,4% of trains arrived on time or with a maximum delay of 6 minutes in Brussels or at their destination. This means that punctuality was higher than in July last year, when it was […]
August 08, 2025
The Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB has dismissed a train driver for posting a live video on TikTok while driving a train. This was reported by the newspaper Le Soir, among others. Or how a well-intentioned “proportional initiative”, according to the train driver, turned into a personal nightmare. According to the newspapers, the incident dates to […]
August 07, 2025
The Italian government has approved the project to build a 3.3-kilometer suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina. It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world, connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland. The project, scheduled for completion by 2032, has a price tag of € 13.5 billion. The arrival of the bridge, already […]
August 06, 2025
Until 17 August, Belgian rail network operator Infrabel will be renewing 24 km of sleepers on the section between Hoegaarden and Pousset. The company is using a 700-meter-long mega work train for this to replace around 40,000 sleepers. This Austrian work train, weighing 1,600 tons, travels across Europe to undertake massive construction projects. This is […]
August 05, 2025
Many cities and policymakers dream of it, but few can achieve what Helsinki accomplished last year: zero traffic fatalities. The formula behind these exceptional figures is the introduction of a 30 km/hour speed limit in the city. But speed limits were certainly not the only important factor contributing to this success. The zero traffic fatalities […]
