2023-09-25 17:44:00
In Belgium, one trip in five is a home-work trip. Worker mobility therefore constitutes an important lever for action to reduce pollution. To achieve this, one of the areas of action aims to reduce the use of the car, which is still mainly used to get to work. But if Belgium wants to meet European objectives, such as that of “Fit For 55” which commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, it will still be necessary to convince more commuters to take public transport. The famous “modal shift”, which sees workers abandoning the car in favor of public transport or cycling to go to work, is not yet sufficient.
This is the conclusion rendered by the Central Economic Council (CCE) and the National Labor Council (CNT) in an opinion published this Monday. The two bodies, which bring together the social partners, emphasize that buses, trams, metros and trains are struggling to establish themselves as a credible alternative to the car among workers. In question, the “quality often perceived as unsatisfactory and the fragmentation of the public transport offer”, describes the opinion.
The two bodies quite logically plead for an improvement in the quality of public transport, as well as infrastructure which facilitates the transition from one transport to another (such as car or bicycle parking near stations). They are in favor of the establishment of an integrated system, where timetables would be better coordinated between the different transports. They also call for the development of integrated pricing, like what has already been implemented in Brussels with the BruPass (a transport ticket valid in the various transport companies active in Brussels and the periphery). .
No return to normal
The opinion highlights that the level of public transport ridership remains below pre-Covid-19 pandemic rates. A well-known observation by the Belgian railway company, which is stepping up operations to attract commuters to its trains, as recently demonstrated by the launch of a special flexible teleworking subscription. The CCE and the CNT also recommend extending the voluntary 80/20 third-party payment system in force at the SNCB (where the company pays 80% of the worker’s subscription, and the authorities take care of the remaining 20%) to other regional transport companies. “This extension is an opportunity to stimulate the use of regional public transport for home-work travel. In Wallonia and Flanders, less than 4% of commuters currently use the regional public transport offer,” further specifies the two bodies, which also see it as a means of promoting access to employment and mobility between the regions. The opinion also recommends facilitating the implementation of the mobility budget, this system born from the ashes of “cash for car” which allows the amount provided for a company car to be used in different options (transport subscriptions, participation in rent, etc.), but which is still little used because it is considered too complex.
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