Sint-Truiden ( Brussels Morning Newspaper): The cancellation of the afternoon trip on line 50 for the city of Sint-Truiden and Hasselt has been resolved by Transport company De Lijn. It will resume on Thursday 9th January. This was because the trip was cancelled due to a lack of staff. This affected more than 30 students from the Instituut Mariaburcht in Stevoort, also known as i-MaS.
The problem emerged from a technical factor and an inadequate number of operators as well, which significantly restrained the regularity and availability of services on this route. Passengers should expect normal performance with the resolution in place, as this increases connectivity and reduces travel times in the affected areas.
From 9th January 2025, Thursday, Line 50 will once again run past the i-MaS in Stevoort at 15:34 for the city of Sint-Truiden and Hasselt. The availability of spare parts for maintenance and additional staff to attend to the vehicles’ needs has helped boost the transport link’s availability for users. As a result of the disturbances, transport authorities have been sparing no effort in the past few weeks trying to deal with all the problems that Line 50 has been experiencing. This involved making extra efforts in staffing to ensure adequate manpower and taking time to examine the trains in a bid to satisfy safety and performance criteria. Through delegation and active cooperation with local governments, De Lijn was able to implement these changes, which are now highlighted as a return to effective public transportation. The good news is expected to come in the shape of more trains running on Line 50, a line that sees commuters between the major urban hubs and provides essential core commuter services.
Challenges facing public transport in Belgium
The resolution of Line 50’s service disruption highlights broader challenges facing Belgium’s public transport system. Reports that have recently been published have shown that many lines are experiencing similar challenges caused by a lack of staff and degraded infrastructure. These challenges have not gone unnoticed by the government, and efforts have been made to come up with measures that will help improve the general performance and dependability of the public transport systems throughout the country. Efforts directed towards the modernisation of infrastructure, enhancing recruitment drives throughout the country, and upgrading training programmes for personnel all form part of an overall strategy designed to revolutionise the public transport sector in Belgium.
Moreover, the existing PT operators are now considering new technologies like digital tickets and real-time locators to improve passenger’ satisfaction. These initiatives seek to find improvements to enhance the usability and accessibility of the commute system for all parties of concern, as well as deal with the issues of punctuality and reliability in the services. As Belgium moves forward to address such issues, it would be to the positive outcome that Line 50 has now found ways to reduce disruption to allow public transport to remain a viable form of transport throughout the region.
