More than half (53%) of the tram tracks in Flanders are in “poor to very poor” condition: 230 km of tram track are in bad or very bad condition (127 km in bad condition and 103 km in very bad condition). This is evident from figures released by the public transport company De Lijn on Friday. The total Flemish tram-track base is roughly 434 km. 

De Lijn says it renews “a little over 20 km” per year, or about 4.7% of the network. At that rhythm, the existing bad/very bad stock alone would take about 11 to 12 years to clear — and that assumes no other track deteriorates in the meantime.

Far too little maintenance

Tram tracks last about twenty years on average, but in Flanders, trams run on tracks that are up to 40 years old. In some places, the risk is already too high to continue operating, says Ann Schoubs, Director General of public transport company De Lijn. “Far too little has been invested in the tram rail network in recent years.”

Repairing tram tracks is expensive: renovating 5 percent of the network would cost 75 million euros.

Dramatic

In Antwerp, the situation is dramatic, and repair work is underway almost everywhere at once, out of necessity. An official Flemish parliamentary answer says tram lines 2 and 4 have not run through to Hoboken Lelieplaats since July 2023, with a shuttle bus replacing the Zwaantjes-Lelieplaats section.

The timing of all those repair works could hardly have been worse. When every car user is getting stuck in the Oosterweel works, public transport should be the alternative. But that doesn’t seem to be working out entirely. However, the alternatives to the metro tunnel do seem to offer some relief for the time being.

Other cities

Other Flemish cities also have tram track problems. In Ghent, for example, 40-year-old tracks had already caused vibration, loosening, and street-surface problems, and one curve was so worn that trams had stopped running there years earlier.

Brussels appears to be in a better renewal rhythm, although there is no perfectly comparable public ‘bad/very bad track’ figure. STIB/MIVB says Brussels has about 150 km of tram network and renews about 6.7 to 10% of the network per year.

Brussels also has a major capital program backed by the European Investment Bank: a €475 million loan for new electric buses, trams, and metro trains, as well as the renewal of 63 km of tram and metro tracks. That does not prove Brussels has no backlog, but it does show a large, structured reinvestment program.

Neighboring countries

In the neighboring European countries, the situation seems to be more under control. Amsterdam’s tram and metro infrastructure, for instance, is managed with condition-based maintenance over about 224 km of tram track and 110 km of metro track.

For Germany, Berlin’s BVG tram network is much larger – about 320 km – and BVG has recently framed its public-transport strategy as ‘stability over growth’ after years of expansion and pressure on the system.

And in Luxembourg, the modern tram system is young: the completed line to the airport brought it to about 16.4 km and 24 stops.