June 05, 2025
The European Commission is calling on the Belgian government to thoroughly cut subsidies for fossil fuels. It states this in its annual socio-economic recommendations to Belgium. The Commission also regrets that there are no plans to phase out the subsidies before 2030. Such a measure could both boost the greening of transportation and buildings, as […]
June 04, 2025
As in Flanders and Brussels, Wallonia now also has a network of counting points to monitor the number of cyclists. On the website cyclable.wallonie.be, the 159 counting points for both cyclists and pedestrians can be consulted. With this initiative, the region aims to refine its cycling policy, says Walloon Mobility Minister François Desquesnes (Les Engagés). […]
June 04, 2025
From August, you can no longer go to a bpost post office or post point in Belgium to cancel a license plate. From then on, the license plate must be sent to the Vehicle Registration Service (DIV) or handed in in Brussels. Bpost “takes note” of the decision of the FPS Mobility. It also specifies […]
June 03, 2025
Airlines have become slightly less optimistic about 2025. They now expect to carry just under five billion passengers, down from an earlier forecast of 5.22 billion, and generate $979 billion in revenue instead of the previously projected $1,000 billion. This update was shared by IATA, the global airline industry association, during its annual general meeting […]
June 03, 2025
Brussels Mobility is launching a pilot project in Forest to test a dedicated “Kiss & Cycle” zone for parents dropping their children off at school using cargo bikes, long tails, trailer bikes, or other exceptionally large bicycles. The special strip aims to reduce the chaos often seen on sidewalks and streets during school drop-off times, […]
June 02, 2025
The first tunnel element for the new Scheldt Tunnel, which left Zeebrugge on Friday, arrived on Sunday in the port of Antwerp. The 160-meter-long, 42-meter-wide, and 60,000-ton colossus made a journey of more than 100 kilometers across the North Sea and the Scheldt, floated by four tugs and a pusher. It now remains “parked” in […]
June 02, 2025
The airline industry’s ambition to move to zero emissions by 2050 is in jeopardy. This was stated by IATA, the global airline umbrella organization, at a summit in New Delhi, India, to discuss the state of the industry. The aviation sector currently produces approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions; however, due to climate-skeptic policies, including […]
May 29, 2025
Almost five years after the introduction of the general 30 kph zone in the Brussels Capital Region, it is abundantly clear that the introduction of that plan was a good idea. According to Brussels Mobility, there are fewer serious accidents and fatalities, and the introduction of Zone 30 also does not lead to longer travel […]
May 27, 2025
After the US, France now also has the necessary equipment to conduct fire resistance tests on aircraft engines. So reports the French business newspaper Le Figaro. The platform for aircraft engine fire research will be located at the French National Center for Aerospace Research (ONERA), 15 km south of Toulouse. The center, founded in 1968, […]
May 27, 2025
The Dutch railroad company NS is going to remove first class in about half of all Sprinter trains to create additional second-class seats. A total of 3,580 additional second-class seats would be involved. According to NS, first class in the sprinter, a train for short travel distances used for stopping services, is only about 10% […]
May 26, 2025
Greenhouse gas emissions in Flanders have fallen to their lowest point this century. So reports Statistics Flanders, based on figures from the Flemish Environment Agency for 2023. Emissions, still accounting for 65,4 megatons (Mton) of greenhouse gas CO2 equivalents, were notably lower than in the COVID-19 year 2020. Decrease of 3,5 Mton CO2 In 2023, […]
May 26, 2025
As of yesterday, the British South Western Railway (SWR), which serves more than 200 stations in southern England, is once again in government hands. It is, in fact, the first train company to be nationalized under Labour. The Starmer government called the renationalization of British Rail, which was privatized in 1990, a “new era for […]
May 25, 2025
The bicycle continues gaining popularity in Flanders: 18,5% of Flemish travel by (electric) bicycle. In other words, never has there been so much cycling in Flanders. This is according to the Flemish government’s seventh study on travel behavior in Flanders. By comparison, in the Netherlands, 27% of journeys are made by bicycle. Still, the car […]
May 23, 2025
The Walloon public transport company TEC has put the first full electric bus into service. This happened in Liège. The bus in question is a Mercedes-Benz Citaro. The ambition is to be fully electric by 2045. “With this first 100% e-bus, TEC opens a new chapter in its history: that of a cleaner, quieter and […]
May 22, 2025
Last year, 16,403 fines were issued in the Brussels region for motorists who entered the low-emission zone (LEZ) with an overly polluting car. That’s almost a halving from the record year of 2023, when 29,643 drivers were fined. Meanwhile, several citizens’ associations have started proceedings at the Constitutional Court to annul the two-year postponement of […]
May 21, 2025
Three years after the introduction of stricter rules for e-scooters, many Belgians still do not know the most important rules. This emerges from a new representative survey by the traffic institute Vias. For example, 44% of those surveyed do not know that you must be at least 16 years old to drive an e-scooter. The […]
May 20, 2025
Ryanair’s net profit is down 16% compared to last year, to 1,6 billion euros. That’s according to figures for the fiscal year that ended at the end of March. The Irish low-cost carriers had to cut their prices by 7% to fill up planes. That strategy led to a record number of just over 200 […]
May 20, 2025
Since yesterday, the Volta 1, the first electric tug in Europe, has been sailing in the Antwerp port area. With the commissioning of Volta 1, the port is taking another step towards greening. In the long term, the port wants no tugboats to run on diesel fuel anymore because diesel still causes a lot of […]
May 19, 2025
Airline ticket prices have risen sharply over the past few years, and the trend is not over yet. According to the Belgian statistics bureau Statbel, the average cost of tickets rose by 11,1% in April. That makes you pay as much as 71% more for a plane ticket today than you did 20 years ago, […]
May 19, 2025
The number of fare dodgers at the Belgian public transport company NMBS/SNCB is rising. Last year, nearly 700,000 passengers without tickets were caught red-handed at the railroad company. Sudinfo newspapers have reported the news. This is a remarkable 40% increase compared to 2023, some 200,000 more than two years ago. Impact of tens of millions […]
May 16, 2025
French Bus company BlaBlaCar now offers train tickets on its website and app in addition to its bus and carpool offers. The service is in direct competition with SNCF Connect, the official booking platform of French railroads SNCF, and Trainline, an independent, commercial ticket seller offering tickets from multiple rail companies in Europe, including SNCF. […]
May 15, 2025
Smart energy tariffs are becoming increasingly popular for their flexibility and potential to save costs. Smappee, an award-winning tech company from Kortrijk, is also capitalizing on that market trend by launching a virtual battery. In this service, solar panel owners can stockpile their unused power as a credit that allows them to charge their EV […]
May 14, 2025
The Belgian Nathan De Valck will be the new CEO of Deurne and Oostende airports. So reports the Gazet van Antwerpen. De Valck will start as the top executive there on June 16th. De Valck is currently with the air cargo company Worldwide Flight Services for the airports of Brussels and Liège. The French company […]
May 14, 2025
From January 2028, the Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB will no longer conduct statutory recruitments. This is stated in the preliminary agreement that the railroad unions ACOD Spoor, ACV-Transcom, and VSOA Spoor reached with Minister of Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés). From now on, new employees will be recruited by contract, which will eventually lead […]
May 13, 2025
Motability Operations, the UK’s largest car leasing company, has presented a wheelchair-accessible electric demonstration vehicle to encourage manufacturers to ensure that wheelchair users are also included in the transition to EVs. Plans to market such an electric wheelchair-accessible vehicle (eWAV) are not yet concrete. But in cooperation with South Korean auto giant Kia, Motability Operations […]
May 12, 2025
IAG, the group behind British Airways and Iberia, is expanding its fleet with 71 new aircraft. The orders are neatly divided between Boeing, an American manufacturer, and its European rival, Airbus. The order involves more than 20 billion dollars. The planes would be delivered between 2028 and 2033. IAD did not release how much specifically […]
May 09, 2025
Flemish Mobility Minister Annick De Ridder (N-VA) wants the public transport company De Lijn to work out a new framework agreement for a planned order of some 30 streetcars for Antwerp. The order is with Spanish rolling stock manufacturer Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF). The price would suddenly be 1.5 times higher, and the […]
May 08, 2025
Belgian railroad network manager Infrabel is conducting tests using liquid nitrogen and electricity, among other things, to control weeds in and along the tracks. It does so with its Dutch counterpart, ProRail, and the international railroad organization UIC. Both rail network managers are looking for new methods to control weeds on the tracks, although the […]
May 08, 2025
Media House newspapers report that Flemish public transport operator De Lijn received a whopping 87,000 complaints last year, 24,000 more than in 2023. This is the most significant number of complaints De Lijn has ever received in one year. The record number of complaints is mainly due to the new transport plan Hoppin, which the […]
May 07, 2025
Last year, the Dutch flew 100 billion km, or 2.5 million times around the world. This was calculated by the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (KiM). It’s as many kilometers as the Dutch drive by car annually, but with the difference that half of all the kilometers flown are traveled by 9% of the Dutch […]
May 06, 2025
Aviation’s future is at risk if it does not undergo a fundamental transition, says ‘Call Aviation to Action,’ a group of more than 50 aviation executives urging the sector to become more sustainable. The Dutch initiative, which includes various people, including directors, pilots, and technicians, believes that aviation cannot possibly continue on its current course […]
May 05, 2025
Belgium will not be able to submit its National Energy and Climate Plan (NEKP) to the European Commission on May 12th, even though the Commission’s new deadline expires then. According to the cabinet of federal Climate Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés), the delay is due to Flanders. Belgium is now committed to submitting the plan […]
May 05, 2025
Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB may soon collect a bonus for last year’s performance. According to its publication, ‘Realizations and Key Figures 2024,’ this is because it performed better than agreed upon in several areas. Built into the public service contract between the federal government and NMBS/SNCB is a bonus-malus system of up to 5 […]
May 05, 2025
Flemish Environment Minister Jo Brouns (CD&V) is introducing stricter distance rules for large wind turbines. This is reported by the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. For windmills higher than 200 meters, the distance to the first residence must from now on be at least three times the tip height. “Flanders is too small to place such […]
May 03, 2025
Trade tensions between the United States and Europe may cloud the important summer airline season. So says Lufthansa, pointing to changed consumer behavior due to economic uncertainty. Brussels Airlines, a subsidiary of the German airline group, suffered an adjusted operating loss (EBIT) of 53 million euros during the first quarter of this year. However, because […]
April 29, 2025
CO2 emissions from planes taking off from a European airport last year are back almost at the same level as in 2019, before the Covid-19 crisis. So, Transport & Environment (T&E) reports. The NGO that fights for more environmentally friendly transportation calls the airlines’ promise to return greener after the coronavirus pandemic “a joke.” Last […]
April 29, 2025
Flemish public transport operator De Lijn has presented its first electric articulated bus in Leuven. By July this year, 109 articulated e-buses will be in service in Flanders. The buses are part of a framework agreement under which De Lijn can order up to 500 such vehicles from the Italian industrial vehicle manufacturing company Iveco. […]
April 28, 2025
Dégage!, a Ghent-based non-profit organization that offers private car sharing throughout Flanders, grew solidly last year, with 900 new users and nearly 150 additional shared cars. Through Dégage!, owners can lend their private cars to people in their neighborhood. Part of the costs are then reimbursed to the owner. Within Dégage, 543 cars are shared, […]
April 28, 2025
It was quite a saga, but the new streetcar in Liège went out for its first official public run this morning. After two months of testing on the new rails, the streetcar switched to its commercial speed of 20 k/h. The streetcar, renamed “the white snake” by designer Michel Redolfi, and the new mobility network […]
April 25, 2025
The number of accidents to and from work is increasing as more and more people travel to work by (electric) bike or on foot. That’s according to figures from insurer Ethias, based on an analysis of more than 7,500 recent claim files. Such accidents also impact the workplace, as 41% of absenteeism is due to […]
April 24, 2025
Belgian Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) has reached a preliminary agreement with rail unions on issues including personnel management, legal responsibilities, and the modernization of staff status. The agreement with representatives of HR Rail, NMBS/SNCB, Infrabel, and the unions ACOD Spoor, ACV Transcom, and VSOA Spoor may not be enough to also avert next […]
April 23, 2025
Antwerp-based maritime group CMB.TECH, formerly Euronav, wants to merge with Norwegian dry bulk carrier Golden Ocean Group. The merger would create one of the world’s largest diversified listed maritime groups with a combined fleet of more than 250 vessels. A final agreement would be concluded this quarter, with the merger to be completed in the […]
April 22, 2025
Brussels Airport will invest half a billion euros in infrastructure to accommodate the passenger growth expected in the coming years. The project involves the construction of a new intermodal hub, an expansion of the departure and arrival hall, a new hotel, a new drop-off zone, and a green boulevard with a park. The investment is […]
April 18, 2025
The Flemish public transport company De Lijn has long planned to deploy self-driving buses, but the plans just don’t seem to be getting off the ground. For example, a pilot project was underway in Leuven. However, the tendering procedure for the framework contract appears to have been put on hold. The ambition to have an […]
April 18, 2025
The Belgian Council of State has suspended the public railroad company NMBS/SNCB’s decision to designate Spanish CAF as the preferred bidder for purchasing new trainsets. The decision came after co-bidder Alstom went to court to ask for it to be suspended. The Council judges that NMBS/SNCB has not been sufficiently transparent in its decision. As […]
April 17, 2025
Staff of the Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB were victims of aggression 2,102 times in 2024. That’s about 200 fewer reports of aggression compared to the previous year, but it still equates to staff being victims of aggression an average of nearly six times a day. The figures are down from 2023 and 2022 (1,900 […]
April 17, 2025
American ride-hailing platform Lyft is buying the taxi app FreeNow from German luxury car brands BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The Uber competitor is paying 175 million euros for this and wants to use it as a lever to enter Europe under its own name. Lyft is primarily a ride-hailing platform that connects passengers with drivers through […]
April 16, 2025
China has ordered its airlines to stop taking further deliveries from Boeing, the US manufacturer that, along with Airbus, ranks as one of the world’s largest aircraft producers. This reports news agency Bloomberg. This is a retaliatory measure in the trade war launched by US President Donald Trump. Beijing has also asked Chinese airlines to […]
April 15, 2025
Energy company Engie has started constructing a solar park on its site in Rodenhuize, the peninsula in the port of Ghent that already houses three wind turbines and an ultra-fast charging station for EVs. Starting this summer, the installation will produce about 5.7 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity annually, enough for the average consumption of […]
April 14, 2025
As already known, the Belgian railroad company NMBS/SNCB must save over 675 million euros from the new government. But now the business newspaper L’Echo/De Tijd is also publishing more detailed figures on what those savings must look like year by year. This year, the railroads must save 50 million euros from the De Wever government. […]
April 11, 2025
The Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB is introducing a flexible parking subscription, an initiative that aims to respond mainly to commuters who regularly work from home and thus do not take the train to work every day. With this, NMBS/SNCB wants to capitalize on the success of telecommuting, which is now well established in the […]
April 10, 2025
The EU has new legislation that is ready to reduce plastic pollution in the environment. For example, companies that produce or transport small plastic pellets will face stricter regulations. The rules will apply to all companies that handle more than five tons of plastic pellets annually within the EU. They will also cover companies using […]
April 09, 2025
Not a week goes by now, so to speak, without a new competitor to the Eurostar being announced. Now, the Italian rail group Ferrovie dello Stato also wants to run high-speed trains between London and Paris via the Channel Tunnel by 2029. It has planned an investment of one billion euros for this purpose. It […]
April 09, 2025
The Auditor of the Council of State advises to suspend the decision of Belgian public railroad company NMBS/SNCB on the order of new trains. This is what the public broadcaster VRT writes on its website. NMBS/SNCB chose Spanish company CAF as the preferred bidder to build hundreds of new trains, an order worth 3.4 billion […]
April 08, 2025
Ombudsrail, the Belgian ombudsman service for rail passengers, was contacted 4,154 times last year, up 7.6% from 2023. On that basis, 1,089 files were opened, accounting for 2,344 complaints – one file can contain several complaints. Seven out of ten complaints in this regard were filed in Dutch. Together with even older complaints, just over […]
April 07, 2025
French train builder Alstom is planning a significant expansion in France. The company plans to invest 150 million euros and recruit at least 1,000 people this year. The investments and hiring are coming to meet the increased demand for high-speed trains. The plan is to start a new production line at Alstom’s Valenciennes plant. At […]
April 07, 2025
Belgian high-voltage grid operator Elia is calling for vigilance over solar overproduction. Due to the sunny spring and the large number of solar panels installed, an overproduction could lead to negative prices and a frequency increase, threatening blackouts. Unlike last year, when this phenomenon occurred mainly in the summer, Elia notes that the risk is […]
April 04, 2025
Rehabilitation physicians at UZ Ghent want a bicycle helmet to become mandatory in Belgium. After all, less than a third of Belgians (29%) wear a bicycle helmet, but out of the nearly four in ten victims of injury accidents involving bicycles and speed pedelecs who ended up in a Belgian hospital in 2023 had a […]
April 03, 2025
Irish airline Ryanair ended its fiscal year with a record: for the first time in its history, it rounded the 200 million passenger mark. The airline says it is the first time a European airline has done so. Based on passenger figures, Lufthansa, which includes Brussels Airlines, is the number two airline in Europe. That […]
April 02, 2025
The European Commission has fined 15 major automakers 485 million euros for participating in a cartel involving the recycling of end-of-life vehicles. The fines apply to BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo, and the European automobile trade association ACEA, among others. All companies admitted involvement in the cartel and agreed to the settlement. Mercedes-Benz escaped a fine […]
