Limburg (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Transport company De Lijn plans to eliminate specific bus routes throughout Limburg beginning in July. The plan includes removing five entire routes in addition to trimming scheduled services on fifteen other routes due to resource workforce and vehicle shortages.
De Lijn Transport announced major reductions in their Limburg bus service operations starting in July. Five entire bus lines and fifteen routes with reduced service frequency will be introduced. The shortage of buses, as well as drivers and financial resources, has prompted this decision. The recent changes in bus schedules follow previous major adjustments from January as part of De Lijn’s basic accessibility program.
That is because De Lijn was imposed budget neutrality by the previous Flemish Government,
says Els Robeyns (Vooruit), Flemish Parliament member and mayor of Wellen.
This means that no additional money was allocated to achieve basic accessibility and that De Lijn therefore had to do this with the same budget.
That budget is not enough for the big project.
The budget had already been cut back significantly in the previous years, and the personnel, fuel and material costs have increased in the meantime: an almost impossible task.
Multiple elements contribute to these adjustments, such as driver shortages, inadequate bus supply and restricted funding. The previous Flemish Government required De Lijn to operate without budget deficits, according to Flemish Parliament member and mayor Els Robeyns.
De Lijn must maintain its current financial allocation unchanged due to increased personnel expenses and fuel and material prices, thus preventing budgetary support for basic accessibility services.
Twenty-two bus lines operating in Limburg will experience cancellations as officials eliminate five of those routes permanently.
Students travelling to cities including Leuven and Brussels will lose their weekend route connectivity with the closure of lines 178 (Maaseik – Brussels) and 179 (Bocholt – Brussels). These budget cuts will lead to the termination of bus service on the Centrumpendel in Hasselt as well as five other bus lines throughout Limburg. Line 19 will transform into a school bus, and line 66 will receive route adjustments.
Because why should only Limburg be the victim?
she asks.
The savings are mainly bad news for the traveller, Robeyns believes.
Many people depend on public transport. How can we keep the impact on them as small as possible? I will also ask the minister that tomorrow.
What Is the history of De Lijn’s financial and operational challenges?
As Flanders’ lead public transportation company, De Lijn continues to experience continual budgetary and operational difficulties across recent years. Reports show that De Lijn sustained budgetary cuts worth €90 million from 2014 through 2019. Staffing expenses, together with fuel and maintenance bills, surged significantly as operational expenses increased. Fuel expenditures rose by 20% in 2022 as a single category.
De Lijn faces ongoing difficulties due to driver shortages, which reached 500 vacancies as reported in 2023 and resulted in additional service disturbances.
The current cuts in Limburg are part of De Lijn’s broader “basic accessibility” plan, which was introduced to create more demand-driven public transport. Criticism has targeted the plan because more funding is limited to zero growth over time. The population of over 870,000 people in Limburg depends heavily on public transportation throughout its widespread rural sections.
