Bus and trams services across Flanders hit by strike action
Bus and tram services across Flanders have been hit by a strike called by the socialist trade union ACOD at the Flemish public transport company De Lijn. De Lijn says that 70% of its drivers have turned up for work and that disruption is the greatest on urban bus and tram services and on the buses and trams that serve the communities along Flemish Coast.
Passengers are advised to check the verstoring.delijn.be website to see if the bus or tram service they wish to take has been impacted by strike.
De Lijn’s Inge Debruyne told VRT News that “The action is currently causing disruption to bus and tram services across Flanders and we regret that. As a global picture around 70% of the drivers have turned up for work. The disruption is greatest on urban routes and at the coast”.
Where is there disruption to services?
Passengers are advised to check the verstoring.delijn.be website to see if the bus or tram service they wish to take has been impacted by strike.
De Lijn’s Inge Debruyne told VRT News that “The action is currently causing disruption to bus and tram services across Flanders and we regret that. As a global picture around 70% of the drivers have turned up for work. The disruption is greatest on urban routes and at the coast”.
When is there disruption to services?
In East Flanders around three-quarters of drivers turned up for the morning shift. The disruption is worst on urban routes in Ghent, Aalst and Sint-Niklaas. In Ghent all vehicle that operate on the city’s network of urban services will return to their depots at 7:30pm. This means that there will be no services at all in the East Flemish capital on Wednesday evening.
In Flanders around two-thirds of drivers turned for work. There disruption is worst along the Flemish Coast, when no trams and few busses are running. Urban services in Kortrijk are also badly hit. Around half of services are running in Bruges. The situation is somewhat better on rural services.
In Flemish Brabant around two-thirds of drivers are working. The Pajottenland area in Flemish Brabant and De Lijn’s services in the west of Brussels are particularly badly hit as are urban services in Leuven.
Around three-quarters of drivers have turned up for work in Limburg province.
Two-thirds of drivers have turned up for work in Antwerp province. Around one third of busses and trams are running on the urban network in Antwerp.
Strike more than a week old in Flemish Brabant
Drivers in Flemish Brabant have been striking for over a week. They are taking industrial action to protest against what they see as a range of issues including short-staffing, poor HR planning the non-attribution of annual leave, deficiencies in De Lijn’s HR department in general and the poor organisation of the public transport company’s technical services.
The socialist trade union ACOD called on its members to strike in the whole of Flanders. The liberal trade union ACLVB has called on its members to join the strike in Flemish Brabant while the Christian trade union ACV has not called its members out on strike.