Big increase in delays and cancellations on the region's trams and buses
According to figures from the Flemish Transport Minister Lydia Peeters (liberal), the number of services that were cancelled by the Flemish public transport company De Lijn, increased by more than half in the four years between 2018 and 2022. In a response to a parliamentary question from the socialist member of the Flemish Parliament Els Robeyns, Ms Peeters said that in 2022 De Lijn cancelled a total of almost 275,000 services on its network of bus and tram routes, an increase of more than 90,000 on 2018.
The number of services that had to be scrapped due to staffing issues increased fourfold during the same period. In 2018 37,543 services were scrapped due to shortages of staff. Last year this this was 151,818.
In 2022, the number of services scrapped due to technical issues was almost 20,000, this is around double the number in 2018.
A quarter of services not on time
The figures also reveal that a quarter of De Lijn’s services were “not on time” in 2022. De Lijn’s definition of “on time” is no more than 2 minutes early and less than 5 minutes late.
Ms Robeyns told journalists that the figures show that “the Flemish Government needs to invest in better, accessible, affordable public transport for all so that that people switch to using public transport in their numbers”.