© BELGIUM
Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) has again instructed De Lijn to provide reinforcement runs from April 15 in places where there are capacity problems with school runs. De Lijn will have a number of reinforcement runs carried out by private coach companies. The minister is releasing 350,000 euros for this purpose. She announced this on Thursday.
Source: BELGA
Yesterday at 6:15 PM
On the sidelines of an exchange of views in parliament about the rollout of basic accessibility, Minister Peeters said on Thursday that it is important that De Lijn constantly makes adjustments so that travelers can easily reach their destination. This also applies to students. They must be able to get to school easily.
Because there are capacity problems on some school runs, De Lijn is already providing reinforcement by, for example, deploying articulated buses or by calling on the operators.
“But there is more demand, which means that De Lijn will have a number of reinforcement runs carried out by coach companies in the coming months,” said Minister Peeters. It is not the first time that private coach companies have been called in for reinforcement runs.
During such a reinforcement run, a coach continuously follows behind another bus. “We want to increase capacity on certain school runs. It mainly concerns school runs in West Flanders and East Flanders,” the minister explains. The minister is allocating an additional 350,000 euros for the reinforcement runs.
In order to tackle capacity problems in a structural manner, adjusted timetables are being developed for the new school year 2024-2025.