February 08, 2023
Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) will put a proposal of 0% VAT on tickets of Belgium national railway company NMBS/SNCB on the table at the March governmental budget audit. He said this in the chamber’s Mobility Committee. Currently, it is 9% by default. Furthermore, the minister again disputed that he intends to implement significant rate […]
February 06, 2023
Cycling is becoming increasingly popular for commuting in Belgium, and employers are doing more to support sustainable mobility modes. This pops up clearly from the 6th edition of the survey organized every three years by the Belgian FPS Mobility and Transport among all private and public sector employers with at least 100 employees. In general, […]
February 03, 2023
The city of Amsterdam has decided to ban heavy coaches (+7,5 tons) from the city center as of 2024. The decision has been taken because the many buses – up to 450 a day – are a nuisance for inhabitants. The bus traffic causes congestion in the narrow streets of Amsterdam and creates unsafe situations […]
February 02, 2023
After the commissioning of a more powerful power supply, tunnel operator Getlink announced on Wednesday that up to 1 000 trains a day will eventually be able to use the Channel Tunnel. Previously, six trains could travel through the tunnel simultaneously in each direction. This could rise to eight in the future, including a new […]
February 02, 2023
The Belgian government’s new management contract with the public railway company NMBS/SNCB contains a bonus-malus system. If the NMBS/SNCB does not achieve the performance indicators, it can lose up to five million euros in funds. On the other hand, if it does achieve them, a bonus of the same amount is included. Minister of Mobility […]
February 01, 2023
The European Commission has selected ten pilot projects for new train connections between European cities. One of those pilot projects is a new night train, connecting Amsterdam, Brussels, and Barcelona, similar to European Sleeper’s earlier announced Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin line. The Commission will also support several other pilot projects to stimulate the expansion of international rail traffic […]
January 30, 2023
Last Saturday, public transport company De Lijn inaugurated its first new trams in Deurne (Antwerp, Belgium). From Monday, January 30th, the so-called ‘city liner’ (‘stadslijner’, in Dutch) will be used for the first time on line 10, connecting Wijnegem and Schoonselhof. The new trams are 30 meters long and can transport up to 187 passengers. […]
January 27, 2023
Belgian railway network operator Infrabel has inaugurated a new control room in Brussels. This forms the completion of a major operation in which 368 outdated signal boxes were replaced by ten modern counterparts. The program started 18 years ago and represents an investment of nearly 1 billion euros. It turns the operator into one of […]
January 26, 2023
By the end of this year, buses and trams of the Belgian public transport company TEC in Wallonia will automatically get a green light when approaching a traffic light at an intersection. This will reduce travel times, causing fewer delays, and as another positive result, allow for fewer emissions if not yet electric. To technically […]
January 26, 2023
Flemish public transport company De Lijn has placed a large order of up to 500 electric buses with Iveco, of which 65 articulated e-buses, a first for De Lijn. It’s a tough blow for the Dutch VDL group, which has a new e-bus factory in Roeselare (Belgium) but only gets an order of 75 e-buses […]
January 25, 2023
The high-speed train operators Eurostar and Thalys merger has entered a new phase. The former exploits high-speed train connections between Belgium and the Netherlands, France, and Germany; the latter between the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the UK. By 2030, the group intends to transport 30 million passengers annually, or twice as many as in 2022. […]
January 24, 2023
Public transport company De Lijn has ordered the first 17 electric tram buses for the Spartacus project in Limburg. The decision was made in May last year to shelve the almost 18-year-old plans for a tram connection between Hasselt and Maastricht and replace it by electric buses to be delivered now by Dutch-Belgian bus builder […]
January 19, 2023
VDL Bus & Coach has received an order of 193 electric buses from Dutch public transport company EBS, which will use these new-gen Citea buses in the region Zaanstreek-Waterland (the Netherlands). These buses will be built in Valkenswaard and in the new Belgian e-bus factory in Roeselare, which is opening soon. EBS was founded in […]
January 18, 2023
US car rental company Hertz will make 25 000 electric vehicles available to Uber drivers in Europe by 2025. The two companies announced this in a joint statement on Tuesday. The first vehicles will be available for hire in London from January. The initiative will then be extended to Paris, Amsterdam, and other major cities. […]
January 13, 2023
Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB once again carried more than 200 million passengers last year. The previous two years had failed to reach that mark due to the corona crisis. “On average, the number of passengers is about 90% of the passenger volume in 2019,” the railway company says in a press release. For 2022, NMBS/SNCB […]
January 12, 2023
The French public transport purchasing bureau (CATP) has updated its comparative study of bus drivetrains concerning pollution and costs during a 15-year lifespan. The increased energy prices and new hydrogen offers on the market gave the incentive to publish the latest figures unfavorable to hydrogen. The CATP was founded in 2011 and published its initial […]
January 12, 2023
For the first time in five years, Belgians use their cars slightly less to commute to work. On the contrary, public transport is again as popular for commuting to work as before corona, and the number of company cars reaches a new record. This is according to the annual mobility barometer of HR service provider […]
January 04, 2023
On Tuesday, January 3rd, the Brussels museum ‘Train World’ in Schaarbeek (Brussels) welcomed its one-millionth visitor. Train World is the museum of NMBS/SNCB, the National Company of the Belgian Railways. It is Belgium’s first real railway museum, and it opened its doors to the general public in September 2015. Visitors can get a unique view […]
January 03, 2023
The ferry connection on the Belgian river Scheldt, the so-called Antwerp ‘water bus’, is a huge success. The number of annually transported passengers increased year after year, growing from 105 000 to 775 000 in five years. That is why Aqualiner decided to deploy larger ships this year. The water bus has been operational since […]
December 29, 2022
More than 38 400 scheduled train journeys were canceled in Belgium last year, a record number. So reports the newspaper De Tijd, which analyzed figures from railway network operator Infrabel from January to November. With more than 38 400 train journeys scheduled to be canceled, 2022 thus already breaks the record from 2016, when just […]
December 28, 2022
European Sleeper, the Dutch-Belgian night train service announced in February 2021, will be operational in May 2023. The train will connect Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin and be available three times a week in both directions. The maiden trip is planned for May 25th, departing in the German capital at 10:56 p.m. and arriving the following […]
December 28, 2022
Every bus line of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn driving to and from the Brussels Capital Region will, in the future, be recognizable by a new line number. The new combination consists of the letter ‘R’ and two digits. The letter R stands for ‘regional’. The Flemish transport company, which has some 50 […]
December 23, 2022
Flemish citizens don’t take the car, train, or bus as often as before the corona crisis. That is what the second large-scale Covid-19 survey of Flanders, in which 3 730 respondents took part, revealed. The third and final report from Statistics Flanders to gain insight into the impact of the corona pandemic on the living […]
December 21, 2022
Belgian railway network operator Infrabel has inaugurated in Brussels an infrared system against track walkers. The system should avoid as many casualties as possible and protect the punctuality of trains. The advanced surveillance system was inaugurated at Brussels-Capelle Church, the busiest point on the rail network with a daily flow of 1 200 trains and […]
December 21, 2022
In recent months, the Flemish public transport company De Lijn had to cancel many planned trips. The reason for it was a shortage of staff. After an intensive recruitment campaign focusing on the largest ‘problem areas’ (Antwerp, Louvain, and the Flemish part of Brussels), De Lijn recently recruited 657 drivers. However, next year, the company […]
December 20, 2022
The Dutch electric bus manufacturer Ebusco has revealed a new model for its zero-emissions line-up: the Ebusco 3.0 18-meter, an articulated bus made from composite materials. That keeps the weight very low and gives the bus an electric range of up to 700 km, with a passenger capacity of 150 people. The main advantage of […]
December 19, 2022
The Walloon government has appointed Jean-Michel Soors as the new director general of Walloon public transport company TEC. Soors will start on 1 February 2023. Soors’ appointment follows a selection procedure launched in May 2022 to replace Vincent Perelman’s. The latter decided to explore other horizons. TEC Liège-Verviers Soors has a master’s degree in industrial […]
December 06, 2022
Due to the energy crisis, electricity outages may be possible in some European cities this winter. In France, struggling with its supply as several nuclear plants are out of service, public transport considers all scenarios to avoid stranding passengers, including electricity cut-offs. Although the metro system will be spared a power cut this winter, trams […]
December 05, 2022
France will ban short-haul domestic flights in favor of the train. The country was given the green light by the European Commission to abolish flights between cities if the link by a train offers an alternative solution with trips of fewer than 2,5 hours. When the measure was first announced, it was contested by the […]
December 05, 2022
On Friday, Belgian’s railway company NMBS/SNCB board of directors approved the future management contract. It will now be submitted to the unions for their opinion, with the federal government expected to give the final go-ahead before the end of the year. Many details about the management contract are yet unknown. However, several broad outlines are […]
December 02, 2022
Next year, Flemish Minister for Mobility and Public Works (Open Vld) will invest 2,3 billion euros in 815 projects. In all those projects, three keywords are involved: bicycle, safety, and sustainability. The largest part of the budget is destined for the Agency for Roads and Traffic (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, AWV) (€738 million) and the […]
December 01, 2022
In Jette, in the north of Brussels, the regional agency parking.brussels has opened a new 50-space interchange car park on the grounds of the UZ Brussel. This P+R parking with access control is the first in Brussels under shared management. The Brussels-Capital Region now has eight car parks designated as Park & Rides: Erasmus, Coovi, […]
November 28, 2022
As of last Friday, Seoul’s citizens can ride in an autonomous driving bus. The first self-driving shuttle was inaugurated and must help people take the threshold and build faith in the technology. The bus runs a 3,4-kilometer-long loop through South Korea’s capital, which lasts around 20 minutes. Travelers can embark on one of the two […]
November 23, 2022
The Brussels government will allocate an additional 125 million euros to Mobility next year, increasing the budget to 1,448 billion euros in the 2023 budget. This amounts to 20% of the Brussels Region’s budgetary funds. “The government is taking its responsibility on mobility challenges, the climate change, and health crisis, and more generally on the […]
November 21, 2022
The switch to electric bus traffic in Brussels is being accelerated. In the next two years, four bus lines will become electric, and six additional charging stations near Westland Shopping in Anderlecht will be added. Brussels public transport company MIVB/STIB has announced this. According to MIVB/STIB CEO Brieuc de Meeûs, the terminals of bus lines […]
November 18, 2022
Next year, the Belgian railway company NMBS/SNCB will introduce a new ‘silent’ reporting system for train travelers who feel unsafe. According to research, the feeling of insecurity among train travelers continues to increase. The new system is simple and discrete: travelers can simply ask for help by sending a text message to the permanence center […]
November 17, 2022
This year, the Inter City Express (ICE) high-speed train connection between Belgium and Germany will celebrate its 20th birthday. In 2022, it will also transport a record number of more than one million passengers. On December 15th, 2002, the first ICE train rode between Brussels and Frankfurt. The ICE network is exploited by the German […]
