On May 12 (2021), the Council of State suspended the award for the mobility power plants. This is apparent from the answer given by Minister Lydia Peeters to a parliamentary question from Flemish Member of Parliament Stijn Bex in the meeting of the Mobility and Public Works Committee. It is not the first time that, in the context of a tender procedure, especially when a lot of money is involved, one of the candidates who does not win the award goes to the Council of State.

The services of the mobility minister are still fully studying the judgment of the Council of State, but the result is that the start of basic accessibility, including the start of the core network and the supplementary network, will be postponed indefinitely.

In any case, the minister could give no view on a new start date. Even after 1 January, De Lijn will continue to perform and fulfill its task as it has done until now and can continue to call on the financial resources to which it is entitled today. The budgets for Customized Transport for 2021 and 2022 will in any case remain available. In recent months it has also become clear that a full integration of the transport offer within the mobility center, which will be branded Hoppin, is impossible by January 2022. Such integration takes time and until now it was not clear for shared mobility providers how this will be done in practice and what technical requirements are necessary for this. The postponement of basic accessibility offers the opportunity to further fine-tune the mobility center and its award.

new chances

This statement implies that the largest reform of our public transport in Flanders in recent decades will be postponed indefinitely. Fortunately, postponement is not an adjustment and from Autodelen.net they are calling on Minister Peeters and her administration to seize this moment as an opportunity to make basic accessibility a success. Autodelen.net already sees three opportunities.

Also read: Start of mobility center 1 January 2022 may not be feasible

Minister Lydia Peeters
Print Friendly, PDF & Email