More efficient, customized transport. Although the idea sounds appealing, the flex buses introduced by Flemish public transport company De Lijn in early 2024 to replace the old dial-a-bus service are anything but a resounding success.
More than half, or 52%, of the nearly 18 million km traveled by flex buses last year were without passengers, resulting in an average occupancy rate of 1.6 passengers per trip.
Flemish Member of Parliament An Christiaens (CD&V), who requested the figures, is pushing for a change of course. “It is a solution for the last few kilometers, not a structural replacement for reliable public transport.”
Paradox
There has been criticism for some time now about flex buses often driving around empty. Figures requested by Christiaens now confirm that this form of demand-responsive public transport, without fixed timetables or routes, whereby passengers can book minibuses for up to eight people via the mobility center, is expensive and does not work.
The average occupancy rate of a flex bus in Flanders is 1.58 passengers per trip, although there are significant differences: from 1.95 in Bruges to 1.38 in Antwerp and the Dender region.
In the Kempen and Ghent regions, up to about two-thirds (±66%) of all flex kilometers are traveled empty. In the western part of the country (Westhoek), that share is lower, with about 43% empty kilometers.
But despite the ’empty’ kilometers and low occupancy rates, flexible transport is paradoxically struggling with capacity shortages. In various transport regions, flexible transport requests are being refused due to a lack of available vehicles or drivers.
Adjustments are urgently needed
As a result of flexible transport in De Lijn’s new transport plan, fixed routes have been scrapped in many villages and suburbs. Passengers who used to be able to simply walk to a bus stop are now completely dependent on booking a flex bus, which can be booked up to 30 days in advance or at short notice.
You are also often given a 30-minute window within which the bus may arrive. This makes it almost impossible to keep a tight schedule for your commute or a connection to a train.
According to CD&V, the system needs to be adjusted and is a solution for the last few kilometers, not a structural replacement for reliable public transport. “For many people, this is about their daily lives: getting to the doctor on time, going to work, taking their children to school, or simply socializing. That should never depend on luck or availability at the moment. People in rural areas also have the right to well-functioning public transport.”
Less brutal in Wallonia
An empty kilometer does not necessarily mean inefficient policy. Taxis and shared mobility also have high empty rates, but the key question remains, of course, what it costs per passenger transported and what social purpose it serves.
In Wallonia, where the Proxibus concept has been around for some time, the transition is less radical than in Flanders. While in Flanders, many fixed routes have been scrapped in favor of the flex bus, LeTEC’s flexible services are mainly used as an extra in very sparsely populated areas.
In other words, LeTEC has retained the classic fixed routes and supplemented them, often in collaborations with municipalities, with call-and-ride bus-like systems.
Not evident in other EU countries either
In the Netherlands, too, the focus in sparsely populated areas is on neighborhood flex buses or taxi services, but there, too, the experience has been mixed. The big difference with Flanders is that digital integration was often much more advanced before the system was rolled out on a large scale.
That does not mean there is no criticism. In the Netherlands, too, people in villages complain that the “neighborhood bus” is sometimes unreliable for work or school.
In Germany, many regions use a Rufbus (call bus). However, since the introduction of the Deutschlandticket, which starts at €49 per month for all public transport, demand has risen enormously, and the flex systems in rural areas often cannot cope with the extra pressure.
France also makes extensive use of local minibuses, known as ‘Transport à la demande’ (TAD), which has been in operation since 1985. In regions such as Grand Est, these on-demand services are often tied to specific times, such as school hours, rather than being available to book at any time.
Because TAD often requires more subsidies to operate, the system is under pressure in some regions due to limited budgets and sometimes disappointing results in terms of usage.
Switzerland stands out
If there is one country with a service that the rest of Europe can only dream of, it is Switzerland. The country has a legal guarantee that every village with at least 100 inhabitants or employees is entitled to a public transport connection.
In a remote mountain village, for example, public transport operates according to a principle of reliable predictability. Because the postal service in Switzerland is a public service that must deliver letters and parcels even to the smallest villages, these buses ran anyway. The passenger lift is cleverly linked to this.
In a remote village, for example, the bus runs every day at ’12 past the hour’. In other words, the aim is to offer a daily timetable at least hourly, where possible, or several times a day.
Switzerland, therefore, invests around €450 per capita per year in rail and public transport. In Belgium, this amount is considerably lower, depending on the source, ranging from around €200-€250 or even less than €200.
In early 2026, the Swiss Federal Council also approved the ‘Verkehr ’45’ program, a plan to massively expand rail and bus capacity by 2045. The aim is to achieve quarter-hourly connections, a train or bus every 15 minutes, on the main routes.
