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STIB: devoted and dedicated improvements

Posted: 30 April 2008 | Alain Flausch, Managing Director, STIB | No comments yet

The Brussels public transport company, STIB, has experienced a spectacular growth in passenger numbers during the last eight years. In addition to expanding its fleet and restructuring the metro, bus and tram networks, STIB has launched a number of studies with a view to expand the network in the highly-populated zones of the Brussels Capital Region.

STIB is the biggest urban public transport company in Belgium. It serves the 19 boroughs of the Brussels Capital Region as well as 10 other surrounding municipalities. It covers a surface area of 240km² and provides transportation for over 1.1 million inhabitants.

The Brussels public transport company, STIB, has experienced a spectacular growth in passenger numbers during the last eight years. In addition to expanding its fleet and restructuring the metro, bus and tram networks, STIB has launched a number of studies with a view to expand the network in the highly-populated zones of the Brussels Capital Region. STIB is the biggest urban public transport company in Belgium. It serves the 19 boroughs of the Brussels Capital Region as well as 10 other surrounding municipalities. It covers a surface area of 240km² and provides transportation for over 1.1 million inhabitants.

The Brussels public transport company, STIB, has experienced a spectacular growth in passenger numbers during the last eight years. In addition to expanding its fleet and restructuring the metro, bus and tram networks, STIB has launched a number of studies with a view to expand the network in the highly-populated zones of the Brussels Capital Region.

STIB is the biggest urban public transport company in Belgium. It serves the 19 boroughs of the Brussels Capital Region as well as 10 other surrounding municipalities. It covers a surface area of 240km² and provides transportation for over 1.1 million inhabitants.

The three metro lines, 15 tram lines and 51 bus lines together cover a network of 687.5 kilometres in length. STIB won’t stop there – the Brussels transport company is planning even more expansions.

In 2007, STIB signed a fourth management contract for a period of five years with the Government of the Brussels Capital Region, with the main target set to reach 320 million passenger journeys annually by 2011.

With an increase of 70% over the last eight years, STIB has been able to achieve spectacular growth in the number of transported passengers. In 2007, the company transported no less than 277.5 million people to their destination. This dramatic growth has generated a major revenue increase and allowed the company to reduce its indebtedness, hence making room for financing new investments. Over the next five years, STIB is indeed planning to double its investment programme which, during that period, should reach over a billion Euro.

New cars

In previous years, STIB acquired comfortable and environmentally-friendly vehicles: 158 buses, 15 metro trains and 68 long ‘Flexity Outlook’ tram cars. A new depot for buses and metros was also built during the same period.

Between now and 2011, an impressive number of new vehicles will be added to the existing fleet. A new order has already been placed for 102 new trams and 52 new articulated buses. Other major projects include the construction of new depots, a major reshuffling of the metro network, the acquisition of five additional metro trains and gating the 69 metro stations. Extensive expansion plans for the tram network are also on the drawing board with a view to attracting new clients. Plans include, among others, a project to build a new tram line linking the Brussels NATO Headquarters with the city centre.

Restructuring the metro network

A major reshuffling of the metro lines shall provide Brussels with four new lines as of February 2009, including a direct link between the ‘Midi Station’ (terminus for the Thalys trains) and the Roi Baudouin Station/Brussels Fair in the north of Brussels. Equipped with new higher capacity trains, this new metro network will enhance the currently offered transport network by approximately 40% by 2009. The reengineering of the tram and bus networks will bring another 25% extra capacity.

Network reengineering of such a large-scale was compulsory in view of the changes faced by a city like Brussels during the last 40 years. New business districts have emerged over recent decades (such as the area north of the ‘Nord Station’) and travel habits have changed quite considerably. New employment zones also developed in the outskirts of the city such as in the north eastern part of the Brussels Capital Region. From a social viewpoint, providing good city public transport has a major integration impact for isolated districts.

Shorter lines

Changes brought to the network configuration shall no doubt help STIB tackle its two main challenges: greater regularity in a city that is gradually reaching gridlock due to the increase in private traffic, plus meeting the growing demand by increasing capacity. In order to improve the regularity of the service, the network is being restructured by introducing shorter lines (maximum of 15 kilometres) and creating strong axes with high frequency and large and comfortable vehicles.

Regularity of surface transport

Client satisfaction generally goes together with high headways, short journey times and regularity of the service. These are major challenges for surface public transport systems. All too often, cars are parked on the tram tracks or car traffic jams stop the smooth running of the buses.

Since the set up of the Brussels Region in 1990, a lot of positive initiatives have been taken to improve the fluidity of the bus and tram public transport network, including a series of recently implemented bus lanes that go in the opposite direction to the private traffic.

But there is still a long way to go. Strong commitments have been taken by the Brussels Capital Region in STIB, and a contract with a view to increase the travel speed of STIB surface coaches and a system of ‘bonus-malus’ in favour of STIB has been associated with the increase or decrease of STIB vehicles commercial speed.

Improving the commercial speed

STIB and the Brussels Region have agreed to implement in their contractual arrangements what is a common understanding in the transport community, namely that the higher the commercial speed of a bus, the lower will be the number of buses needed to operate the service and the cheaper it will be for the operator. Accordingly, since 2007, it has been agreed that, on an annual basis, the average commercial speed of STIB surface cars will be calculated and depending on the evolution in plus or minus of that average commercial speed, STIB shall receive or reimburse some part of its governmental subsidy. This quite unique arrangement is meant to provide an incentive to the Region for financing and implementing road and infrastructure aimed at protecting public transport vehicles from private traffic.

Future network expansions

In addition to ensuring that public transport runs efficiently, it is also very important to structure the public transport supply so as to meet the mobility needs of the population. With that in mind, STIB is currently preparing a further network expansion program that will be implemented during the period of the next management contract (2012-2016). It includes, among other things, the construction of a tramline from west to east in the northern part of the city, the further extension of the North-South premetro system, and the construction of a new metro line directly connecting the European quarter to the Railway South Station.

And finally, the Brussels transport company is carrying out a study into the development potentials of the trans-regional connections wherever the future suburban railway network shall not operate.

Automation of the metro

Apart from the eventual network expansion, STIB is also starting a preliminary feasibility study on a progressive driverless operation of some of its metro lines. Long-term passenger forecasts do indeed show that there will be the need for major extra capacities on certain lines by 2015-2020 and different techniques of that nature may provide adequate responses to those needs.

Suburban Railway Network

Convincing our fellow citizens to leave their cars at home and instead choose public transport is possible, just as long as public transport provides good headways, short journey times, comfort and security. But in order to make a real big change, especially for daily commuters, the implementation and operation of the Suburban Railway Network around Brussels is of the essence.

Built and to be operated by the national railway company, SNCB, it is meant to offer high quality transport in a wider zone of approximately 30 kilometres around Brussels. The market share of public transport could thereby increase from 34% in 2001 (combination of the figures for the four transport companies) to 40% or even perhaps 45% by 2016, when the Suburban Railway System will be in full operation. But this dream will only become a reality if, in addition, the Authorities make sure that the services provided by the four public transport operators are integrated, at least in terms of service coordination, ticketing, rate cards and passenger information.

In such a small country like Belgium, this integration would indeed be the only sustainable way to provide all passengers with seamless transportation from door to door. An overall agreement between the four operators on all those facets of transport integration is today rather unlikely, though some progress has been made in terms of ticketing. It is not clear whether, on the basis of the present institutional set up of the country, such an agreement will be made in due time between the four concerned public authorities.

The driving force behind integrated ticketing

STIB is the driving force behind the concept of integrated ticketing in Belgium. The company will soon be launching the so-called MOBIB card, a chip travel card based on the European ‘Calypso’ standard that is now used by a growing number of European public transport companies. This card has been designed in such a way that it can be used by the three other Belgian public transport operators: De Lijn in Flanders, TEC in Wallonia and SNCB, the national railway service provider. This smart card, and the information it shall provide on the journeys made by the clients, will help the managing of the network both in terms of supply adjustments and cost of sales reduction.

Quality services

Quality of the service provided to our clients is one of our major focuses: from an industrial company, STIB wants to be transformed into a service-oriented venture paying as much attention as possible to providing seamless travel for all PT clients: this will, among other things, require extra work and vigilance for better work processes in terms of interchanges, real-time incidents management, real time passenger information etc.

STIB in the world

In addition to developing a better service in Brussels, STIB is also targeting the world to showcase its expertise and to become acquainted with new technologies and practices in an ever-developing market.

In 2004, STIB decided to structurally and formally develop its presence on the international scene. It implemented a strategy based on setting up and developing partnerships with other groups or operators. For example, STIB signed a partnership agreement with the city of Istanbul to implement quality procedures and to offer expertise in the field of electro-mechanics for the expansion of the ‘light rail’ system. STIB has also signed other international contracts with, for instance, Athens, Uruguay and Tunisia.

This positioning on the world scene is just another example of how the Brussels transport company is trying to maximise new sources of income. The public transport company that was founded in 1954 has succeeded in drastically improving its ability to cover costs in recent years. Ten years ago, STIB covered just 35% of its expenses with its own revenues. This figure today amounts to nearly 50%.

More employees

In order to offer quality to its growing number of clients, STIB relies on the loyal commitment and dedication of its employees. With more than 6,400 employees, STIB is one of the most important employers in Brussels. It also calls on the services of a large number of suppliers and contractors of goods and services. More than ever, STIB has become a proactive player in the economic activities of the Brussels Capital Region and the country as a whole.