The Flemish public transport company De Lijn has announced that it will be scrapping some of its services from 1 September. De Lijn is being forced to temporarily scrap around 0.75% of its services due to staff shortages. The public transport company assures passengers that services on busy routes and school bus services will not be among those to be scrapped.
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Staff shortages force De Lijn to scrap some services from September
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De Lijn’s spokeswoman Karen Van der Sype told journalists that the reduction in services will be evenly spread across Flanders and will not have a big impact on passengers. Ms Van der Sype added “The search for new drivers and technicians is proving to be a considerable challenge, particularly in areas where there is a lot of competition”.
In recent months services have been cancelled ad hoc and at short notice due to staff shortages. De Lijn has now decided to temporarily scrap 0.75% of its services to enable its buses to run to timetable. No routes will be scrapped completely, but the frequency of the buses on some routes will be reduced.
Passengers will be able to consult the modified timetable on De Lijn's route planner. De Lijn will inform passengers about the changes and how they will be affected in the coming days. The company stresses that this is a temporary measure and as soon as enough staff is available the measure will be revoked.
Not enough buses
The Christian trade union ACV Public Services says that the issue at De Lijn is more about too few busses than not enough staff. “If buses are not or hardly replaced for many years you reach a tipping point whereby the slow influx is no longer able to make up for the buses that can no longer be used”, ACV’s Jo Van der Herten told VRT News.
The union adds that it would have been better if the Flemish Transport Minister Lydia Peeters (liberal) had bought diesel busses as well as electrically powered ones as the first electric busses are experiencing some teething problems.